Everything that rises will fall. Empires, societies, governments. None of them lasts forever. Why? Because even though they are the products of change, they become resistant to change. The longer a society survives, the more it clings to its power, and the more it resists progress. The more it resists progress-resists change-the more its citizens demand it. In response, the society tightens its grip, desperate to maintain control. It's afraid of losing its hold.

— Victoria Schwab

Every weakness is a place to slide a knife.

— Victoria Schwab

For one, dazzling, infinite moment, August felt like he was standing on a precipice, the end of one world and the beginning of another, a whisper and a bang.

— Victoria Schwab

He leans in, resting his weathered hand on the bed. "Treat all the bad things like dreams, Kenzie. That way, no matter how scary or dark they get, you just have to survive until you wake up.

— Victoria Schwab

He manages a sad smile. “An omission is not the same thing as a lie, Miss Bishop. It’s a manipulation.

— Victoria Schwab

He was like one of those pictures full of small errors, the kind you could only pick out by searching the image from every angle, and even then, a few always slipped by. On the surface, Eli seemed perfectly normal, but now and then Victor would catch a crack, a sideways glance, a moment when his roommate's face and his words, his look and his meaning, would not line up. Those fleeting slices fascinated Victor. It was like watching two people, one hiding in the other's skin. And their skin was always too dry, on the verge of cracking and showing the color of the thing beneath.

— Victoria Schwab

He wondered about himself (whether he was broken, or special, or better, or worse) and about other people (whether they were really all as stupid as they seemed).

— Victoria Schwab

His gaze settles on the discarded book. He leans, reaching until his fingertips graze Dante's Inferno, still on its bed of folded sheets. "What have we here?" he asks." Required reading," I say." It's a shame they do that," he says, thumbing through the pages. "Requirement ruins even the best of books.

— Victoria Schwab

I am a man, not a movement,” he said. “But if a movement is what it takes to end this war, then I will play my part.

— Victoria Schwab

I am Sinai,” he said. “I am holy fire. And if I have to burn the world to cleanse it, so help me, I will.

— Victoria Schwab