A conscience is easier to swallow on an empty belly, simpler to swing with a broken wrist. The people who hate money are the ones who don’t have any. The people who hate power are the ones who are powerless

— Jay Kristoff

AIDEN: DID WE NOT ESTABLISH THIS DURING YOUR FAILED ATTEMPTS ON THE BRIDGE? YOU CANNOT HOPE TO MATCH ME. MY COMPUTATIONAL POWER IS ALMOST INCALCULABLY SUPERIOR TO YOURS. TO ONE SUCH AS MYSELF, YOU ARE THE INTELLECTUAL EQUIVALENT OF PROTOZOA. Zhang: True. But I have something you and protozoa don't. AIDEN: AND THAT IS? Zhang: Hands, mother------.

— Jay Kristoff

An avalanche starts with one pebble. A forest with one seed. And it takes one word to make the whole world stop and listen. All you need is the right one.

— Jay Kristoff

Beauty you're born with, but brains you earn.

— Jay Kristoff

Dark now. Blacker than black, I know it. And words are tiny things in the face of all that dark and all that cold. But hear these words, little sister. Hear and know. Tomorrow is coming, just as fast as the turning of the sky. And as sure as it’s black now, the sun will rise. Always. No matter how faint the glow.

— Jay Kristoff

Each of you must decide where you stand. All we ask is that you refuse to kneel. You are the people. You have the power. Open your eyes. Open your minds. Then close the fingers on your hand.

— Jay Kristoff

It takes courage to say goodbye. To stare at a thing lost and know it is gone forever. Some tears are iron forged.

— Jay Kristoff

LOOK AROUND. GAME DEAD, RIVERS BLACK, LAND CHOKED WITH WEED. SKIES BLEEDING, RED AS BLOOD. FOR WHAT?YOUR KIND ARE BLIND. YOU SEE ONLY THE NOW. NEVER THEY WILL BE.BUT SOON YOU WILL. WHEN ALL IS GONE, WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY MONKEY-CHILDREN THAT YOU MURDER FOR A SCRAP OF LAND, A DROP OF CLEAN WATER, THEN YOU WILL SEE.

— Jay Kristoff

My gift to you, Yumiko-chan.' He nodded. 'Use it to cut away your fear, and leave nothing in its wake. Cherish it. And cherish this truth I speak to you now, if no other before or after: The greatest tempest Shiva has even known waits in the wings for you to call its name. Your anger can topple mountains. Crush empires. Change the very shape of the world.' He pressed the blade into her hand, watched her with cool eyes the color of steel.' Your anger is a gift.

— Jay Kristoff

No up. No down. No sky. No ground. Just endless dark shot through with tiny spears of sunlight older than you and your entire species stacked end to end. You want to feel small? Spend sixty seconds in a Cyclone's cockpit, chum. Look out at the nothing and feel it looking back. Then you know exactly how much you add up to.

— Jay Kristoff