Neal Shusterman Quotes

“The growth of civilization was complete. Everyone knew it. When it came to the human race, there was no more left to learn.”

“We are instructed to write down not just our deeds but our feelings, because it must be known that we do have feelings. Remorse. Regret. Sorrow too great to bear. Because if we didn’t feel those things, what monsters would we be?”

“Death makes the whole world kin. Rowan wondered if a world without death would then make everyone strangers.”

“Estrangement from the collective consciousness of humanity’s wisdom is just one more thing that sets scythes apart from others.”

“They removed their raincoats to reveal robes of all colors, all textures. It was a rainbow that summoned forth anything but thoughts of death. This, Citra realized, was intentional. Scythes wished to be seen as the many facets of light, not of darkness.”

″‘Never lose your humanity,’ Scythe Faraday had told him, ‘or you’ll be nothing more than a killing machine.‘”

“Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.”

“With each gleaning I commit, with each life taken for the good of humanity, I mourn for the boy I once was, whose name I sometimes struggle to remember. And I long for a place beyond immortality where I can, in some small measure, resurrect the wonder, and be that boy again.”

“Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.”

“A public journal, testifying to those who will never die and those who are yet to be born, as to why we human beings do the things we do.”

″...when real danger arises, we’ll be the ones who survive—and not just because we own a 357 Magnum, three glock G19’s, and a Mossberg pump-action shotgun, but because we’ve been prepping, in every possible badass way, since as long as I can remember, for the inevitable collapse of society as we know it.”

“It was only dark for a second. Maybe not even that, but it’s enough to make everyone stop eating. Everyone is frozen. What’s that expression? Waiting for the other shoe to drop? But it doesn’t. The lights are on, they stay on. But it doesn’t change the fact that they blinked.”

“The McCrackens. The Herders of the world. Sure, our kind may look a lot like Wolves—large fangs, sharp claws, and the capacity for violence—but what sets us apart from the rest is that we represent the balance between the two. We can navigate the flock freely, with the ability to protect or disown as we see fit.”

“But the big news stations won’t give the Tap-Out the critical airtime it needs – not until there are images that are as dramatic as wind taking off roofs. And if it takes that long for the Tap-Out to be taken seriously, it will be too late.”

“Everyone’s going to remember where they were when the taps went dry, I think. Like when a president is assassinated.”