Pierce Brown Quotes & Sayings

The two Reds crewing the old trash collector are giving us a countdown. When it reaches one, Sevro says, "Tuck your sacks and pop your cloaks." I — Pierce Brown

To build we must break. I was listening.

I know you can break. I need to see that you can build. I need to see what you will build. If the blood we will shed is for something. — Pierce Brown

Kill or be killed. Cheat or be cheated — Pierce Brown

You know a people have given up when they stop teaching their children. — Pierce Brown

-Imagine a world without the arrogance of the young.-

-Imagine a world without the greed of the old.- — Pierce Brown

It's gonna be a hell of a day. A hell of a day. — Pierce Brown

Whose are these?" Sevro asks me. "Daddy's," I tell him. "So you guessed." Sevro laughs. "He's locked in Apollo's dungeons." "The stupid Pixie!" He laughs again. — Pierce Brown

I can't. It's odd. The cameras are off in the top two levels. Same with biometric readers. Can't pinpoint him like we planned." "Off?" I ask. "Maybe he's having an orgy or wankin' off and doesn't want his Security to see." Sevro grunts with a shrug. "Either way, he's hiding something, so that's where we're headed." I — Pierce Brown

Bellona and Augustus, blood enemies, both watch me as you would a snake. I killed one of their sons and embarrassed the other's. I do believe this may become awkward. — Pierce Brown

And how could someone like her, someone with so much self-worth, bare herself and throw her heart at a man who gave so little in return? — Pierce Brown

ArchGovernor's ears," Podginus orders. Bridge forces — Pierce Brown

If the need arises I've got myself a psychotic Goblin-sized fighter jet — Pierce Brown

Eyes belonging to some creature beyond man - a distant, callous calculation fueled by monstrous, inhuman pride. A pride that goes beyond him and stretches back to man's first feeble steps into black space. It is the pride of a dozen generations of fathers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers, all distilled now into a single brilliant, perfect vessel that bears no failure, abides no flaws. — Pierce Brown

Uses that blade to slice open his hand and suck the scarlet blood from the wound before drawing up and spitting it into Roque's face. — Pierce Brown

stand trembling for a moment after he's gone. My heart thuds in my chest. So much pain. I had thought it would be over, but not all scars heal. Not all sins are forgiven. I — Pierce Brown

Power must be claimed. Wealth won. Rule, dominion, empire purchased with blood.
You scarless children deserve nothing. You do not know pain. You do not know what
your forefathers sacrificed to place you on these heights. But soon, you will. — Pierce Brown

We must save ourselves from ourselves before the inheritance of humanity is ash. — Pierce Brown

That to wipe my ass, you golden pricklick? — Pierce Brown

It's there, even if you never see it till the end - that spark of individuality, of freedom. — Pierce Brown

-What do you think [aliens] would think of us? Of man?-
-I suppose they would think we're beautiful, strange, and inexplicably horrible to one another.- — Pierce Brown

If you're watching, Eo, it's time to close your eyes. — Pierce Brown

And what you do for the people you love cannot be judged. — Pierce Brown

Suddenly I realize it wasn't debris I felt against my escape pod as I left the ship. It was people. — Pierce Brown

Eo didn't deserve to die a slave to the Society. And despite her Color, Mustang doesn't deserve any sort of bridle. — Pierce Brown

Friends are the pulse of life. — Pierce Brown

But she could be made from air, from the ether that binds the stars in a patchwork. — Pierce Brown

Bellona? is all the Sovereign can say before he presses the button. — Pierce Brown

Victra stands to the side listening to enemy chatter. "Response teams inbound. More than two thousand mixed units." She's also patched to the strategic command on Orion's ship, so she can gather battle data from the huge sensor arrays on the flagship. Looks like Roque launched more than fifteen thousand men at us in his leechCraft. Most will be in the Pax by now. Burrowed through to find me. Silly bastards. Roque gambled big, bet wrong. And I've just brought three thousand crazed Obsidian berserkers to a mostly empty warship. The Poet is going to be pissed. — Pierce Brown

I've hidden from everyone but you," Mustang says. "It keeps me alive and ticking."
"What's your plan?" I ask.
She laughs at herself. "To be alive and ticking."
"You're better at it than I am."
"How do you mean?"
"No one in your House would have betrayed you."
"Because I didn't rule like you," she says. "You have to remember, people don't like being told what to do. You can treat your friends like servants and they'll love you, but you tell them they're servants and they'll kill you ... — Pierce Brown

I dread finding Cassius. I hope he is dead, because I'm afraid of him. He reminds me of Dancer - handsome, laughing, yet a dragon just beneath the surface. But that's not why I'm afraid. I'm afraid because he has a reason to hate me, to want to kill me. No one in my life has had just cause before. No one has ever hated me. He will if he finds out. Then I realize it. How could the House ever be knit tightly with such secrets? It can't. Cassius will know someone here killed his brother. Others will have lost friends, and so the House will devour itself. The Society did this on purpose; they want chaos. It will be our second test. Tribal strife. — Pierce Brown

Sure, Messiah. You made yourself a cult," she mocks dryly. "They're building idols to you in the square. Kneeling in supplication of your wisdom. O mighty lord. I will laugh when they find out they don't like you and can have you flogged anytime they do a naughty. Now hold still, you Pixie. And stop talking. You annoy me. — Pierce Brown

That is the peril of a solar empire: all the power in all the worlds means nothing if it is in the wrong place. — Pierce Brown

my uncle told me that it's women who see us better than we see ourselves. That — Pierce Brown

Tactus claps his hands together in laughter and draws Sevro in for an obnoxious hug. They are two very peculiar people. But I suppose snuggling in horse corpses gives a bond - makes twins of a morbid sort. — Pierce Brown

You are a worm who thought himself a serpent just because you slither. But your power was not real, Pliny. It was all a dream. Time now to wake. — Pierce Brown

Why would I care what you were? I care about what people do. I care about truth. If you had told me, I wouldn't have done a single thing differently. I would have protected you. — Pierce Brown

The assembly of warriors stands, faces now smeared with blood, and together we recite the names of our chief enemies. "Karnus au Bellona, Aja au Grimmus, Imperator Tiberius au Bellona, Scipia au Falthe, Octavia au Lune, Agrippina au Julii, and Cassius au Bellona. These are wanted lives." In — Pierce Brown

We are not our station in life. We are us - the sum of what we've done, what we want to do, and the people who we keep close. — Pierce Brown

As her voice finally swells and the song runs out of words, I know I have lost her. She becomes something more important; and she was right, I do not understand. — Pierce Brown

Someone has to dot God's i's. — Pierce Brown

An empire cannot be destroyed from without till it is destroyed from within. Remember that. We're empire-breakers, not terrorists. When — Pierce Brown

Dreamers like your wife are limited, little Helldiver." She makes sure I don't speak.
"Understand that. The only power they have is in death. The harder they die, the louder
their voice, the deeper the echoes. But your wife served her purpose. — Pierce Brown

Ares sends his regards, motherfucker. — Pierce Brown

And violent hearts set harshest flame, Roque murmurs from his knee. — Pierce Brown

Everything she does, she means. There's no falseness to her. No deception. So when she tells me she loves me, I know she means it with every part of her. — Pierce Brown

Sefi slinks around us, examining the alien Gold and the strange gear she carries. I like the way people talk when Sefi circles. Seems a little more honest. — Pierce Brown

There is a flower that grows on Mars. It is red and harsh and fit for our soil. It is called haemanthus. It means
blood blossom. — Pierce Brown

All the love I've earned and lost and still wish to live for, I let burn in me. Half — Pierce Brown

I touch the haemanthus blossom in my pocket and feel the wedding band around my neck. They didn't create me. She did. — Pierce Brown

But business in a crony-capitalist society is the craft of sharks. — Pierce Brown

How do sheep kill a lion ? By drowning him in blood. — Pierce Brown

It's a lonely thing carrying the body of someone dead and loved. Like a vase you know will never again hold flowers. I — Pierce Brown

I usually dislike second books in series. The only second installment I ever loved was 'The Empire Strikes Back,' and I think that was wonderful because it evolved the characters while not seeming like a bridge. — Pierce Brown

We all have nature and nurture to shape us. She can watch other people's opinions when she has opinions of her own, and no sooner. We're not digital creatures. We're flesh and blood. Better she learns that before the world finds her. — Pierce Brown

Promises are just chains," she rasps. "Both are meant for breaking. — Pierce Brown

You're of use because you're more than a weapon. When your wife died, she didn't just give you a vendetta. She gave you her dream. You're its keeper. Its maker. So don't be spitting anger and hate. You're not fighting against them, no matter what Harmony says. You're fighting for Eo's dream, for your family that is still alive, your people. — Pierce Brown

Then what is your suggestion?" "You stop being such a little bitch. — Pierce Brown

As the world swirls around us and the ecstasy of war fills the air, Mustang and I look at one another with darkened eyes and wonder just what we have unleashed. — Pierce Brown

The girl did not even know the video would be leaked. Yet it is her willingness to suffer hardship that gave her power. Martyrs, you see, are like bees. Their only power comes in death. How many of you would sacrifice yourself to not kill, but merely hurt your enemy? Not one of you, I wager."

I taste blood in my mouth. I have the knifeRing Dancer gave me. But I breathe the fury down. I am no martyr. I am not vengeance. I am Eo's dream. Still, doing nothing while her murderer gloats feels like a betrayal.

"In time you will receive your Scars from my sword," Augustus closes. "But first you must earn them. — Pierce Brown

Laws are silent in times of war. — Pierce Brown

Pity is not forgiveness, nor is gratitude absolution. — Pierce Brown

They don't care that the math doesn't work. They don't care that the young scream in protest and the old moan their same tired wisdoms. This is just a demonstration of their power. It is their power. They decide the winner. A game of merit won by birth. It keeps the hierarchy in place. It keeps us striving, but never conspiring. — Pierce Brown

Everything grand is made from a series of ugly little moments. Everything worthwhile by hours of self-doubt and days of drudgery. All the works by people you and I admire sit atop a foundation of failures. So whatever your project, whatever your struggle, whatever your dream, keep toiling, because the world needs your skyscraper. Per — Pierce Brown

If violence is the Gold sport, manipulation is their art form. — Pierce Brown

Your firstborn son, Claudius, was all a man could hope for - a son better and wiser than his father. — Pierce Brown

Time to embrace the suck, babydoll. Unpack the heathen. — Pierce Brown

I am not alone. I am not his victim. So let him do his worst. I am the Reaper. I know how to suffer. I know the darkness. — Pierce Brown

Darkness. Then the darkness has holes. Stars. There — Pierce Brown

Even the cruel feel pain. And even the cruel can change. — Pierce Brown

Was forged in the bowels of this hard world. Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love. He — Pierce Brown

The greatest weapon a rebellion has is its spiritus. The spirit of change. That little seed that finds a hope in the mind and flourishes and spreads. — Pierce Brown

After a while of watching me, he stands and punches me in the face. "If you punch me back, you will be sent home, Pixie." I kick him in the shin. He limps away, laughing like a drunk Uncle Narol. I'm not sent home. — Pierce Brown

None of the billion lowReds beneath Mars would be happy if they knew what the highReds knew - that they are slaves. So is it not better to lie?"

"It is better to not make slaves. — Pierce Brown

On Mars there is not much gravity. — Pierce Brown

I wanted them to be terrible, hideous monsters. But they aren't. They are petty men who ruin lives and don't even notice. — Pierce Brown

What is pride without honor? What is honor without truth? Honor is not what you say. It is not what you read." Romulus thumps his chest. "Honor is what you do. — Pierce Brown

There are so many ideas that you just come up with on a day-to-day basis when you're a writer that it's very difficult to want to go back to an old fling, so to speak. — Pierce Brown

Mustang ignores her. "He said he always had his eye on me." She reaches into her pocket, pulls something out, and drops it onto the floor. "So I took one of his." Sevro — Pierce Brown

He said he did it for justice, for the honor of his family and House. But this is revenge, and how hollow it seems. — Pierce Brown

Never tell me the odds, just do it," I command. — Pierce Brown

-I swore an oath...to honor the Compact, to bring justice to the Society of Man. You swore the same. But you forgot what that meant. Everyone has. That is why this world is broken. Maybe the next one can be better.-

-This world is the best we can afford.- — Pierce Brown

So what? We're supposed to whip Titus? Kill him? That would be Law." "Would it? Or would it just be vengeance?" "You're the poet. You figure it out." I kick a stone off the ramparts. — Pierce Brown

And as we pretend to be brave, we become so. All — Pierce Brown

He needed a light. And he made it. Love was his shout into the wind. Same — Pierce Brown

You! Troll!" Sevro shouts. "I'm a terrorist warlord! Stop throwing me. You made me drop by candy! — Pierce Brown

Because honor still matters. Honor is what echoes. His father's words. But they are as empty on his lips as they feel in my ears. This was has taken everything from him. I see in his eyes how broken he is. how terribly hard he is trying to be his father's son. If he could, he would choose to be back by the campfire we made in the highlands of the Institute. He would return to the days of glory when life was simple, when friends seemed true. But wishing for the past doesn't clean the blood from either of our hands. — Pierce Brown

The captain survived. He's a placid, clean-looking man, more limbs than torso, with a fresh gash on his face that pains him terribly. He trembles and sniffles, holding the wound as though his face would fall apart were his hands to leave it. Mother would have called him a shiteating ninnypriss. Eo would have taken a different tack, so I stand over him and speak quietly. — Pierce Brown

Without me, she would not eat. Without her, I would not live. — Pierce Brown

His eyes close. His hand trembles. "I am the star in the night sky. I am the blade in the twilight. I am the god, the glory." His breath shudders out. He is afraid. "I am the Gold." And — Pierce Brown

It is the hottest fire than forms the sternest steel. — Pierce Brown

A heavy silence as the first sparks of revolution are struck. Sevro comes close. "That was rousing." "Too demokratic?" I whisper. "I don't think autocratic demokracy counts." Sevro wrinkles his nose. "You did threaten to vent them into space." "Threaten? I thought I implied it rather smoothly." "Smooth as gravel, dipshit." Sevro cackles a bit too enthusiastically and slaps his leg with his mech hand, denting the metal there. — Pierce Brown

But I am no Gold. I am a Red. — Pierce Brown

And there's the beauty of space. A billion paths to choose. — Pierce Brown

I cannot be afraid. I've spent too long being afraid. Too long being diminished by loss. Too long being everything except what I need to be. And whether I am the Reaper, or whether it's just another mask, it's one I must wear, not just for them, but for myself. — Pierce Brown

Life is the most effective school ever created. Once upon a time they made children bow their heads and read books. It would take ages to get anything across." He taps his head. "But we have widgets and datapads now, and we Golds have the lower Colors to do our research. We need not study chemistry or physics. We have computers and others to do that. What we must study is humanity. In order to rule, ours must be the study of political, psychological, and behavioral science - how desperate human beings react to one another, how packs form, how armies function, how things fall apart and why. You could learn this nowhere else but here. — Pierce Brown

They are all slaves now. Mustang is making them as we speak. But ohhh, she's in an odd mood." He spits out a bone. "Ha! This him then? The Jackal? He looks pale as a Red's ass." He peers closer. "Shit. You nailed him down!" "I think you've taken bigger shits than him, Pax," Sevro adds. "Prime have. More colorful ones too. He's drab as a Brown." "Guard your tongue, fool," the Jackal tells Pax. "It may not always be there." "Neither will your prick if you keep sassin'! Ha! Is it as small as you?" Pax booms. The — Pierce Brown

If this is the end, I will rage toward it. But — Pierce Brown

Brutality." Augustus lets the word hang in the air. "It is neither evil nor good. It is simply an adjective of a thing, an action in this case. What you must parse is the nature of the action. — Pierce Brown

Nothing binds like pain shared. — Pierce Brown

Wise men read books about history. Strong men write them. — Pierce Brown