Red Rising Quotes

“Ha! The great Reaper.” She slaps her thigh. “When have you ever cared what anyone thinks?” “You’re not just anyone.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“No animal but man throws themselves willingly into the flames.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Imagine there was a table covered with fleas,” he explains. “The fleas would jump and jump to heights unknown. Then a man came along and upturned a glass jar over the fleas. The fleas jumped and hit the top of the jar and could go no farther. Then the man removed the jar and yet the fleas did not jump higher than they had grown accustomed, because they believed there to still be a glass ceiling.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“I cannot escape it, what I’ve done, no matter how far I
follow the tunnel. I am alone with my sin. This is why they rule. The Peerless Scarred
know that dark deeds are carried through life. They cannot be outrun. They must be
worn if one is to rule. This is their �rst lesson.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“I will learn to lead �eets. I will win. I will sharpen myself into a
sword. I will give my soul. I will dive to hell in hopes of one day rising to freedom. I will
sacri�ce. And I will grow my legend and spread it amongst the peoples of all the worlds
until I am �t to lead the armies that will break the chains of bondage, because I am not
simply an agent of the Sons of Ares. I am not simply a tactic or a device in Ares’s
schemes. I am the hope of my people. Of all people in bondage.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“It’s amazing how quiet the world is as the arrows sail, carrying death.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Take freedom away, and they give me a life of dreaming.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“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, Red Rising

“Whisper her name.” I do and the Pegasus unfurls like a haemanthus bud. He sets a petal in the center. It closes again. “This is your heart. Guard it with iron.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“One cannot make a mouse a lion." "He can think like a lion.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“But the game isn’t like that, because life isn’t like that. Gods don’t come down in life to mete out justice. The powerful do it. That’s what they are teaching us, not only the pain in gaining power, but the desperation that comes from not having it, the desperation that comes when you are not a Gold.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“I see why Demokracy is illegal. First comes yelling. Frustration. Indecision. Disagreements. Ideas.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“I killed their pack leader,” Sevro says when I ask why the wolves follow him. He looks me up and down and flashes me an impish grin from beneath the wolf pelt. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t fit in your skin.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Sevro looks at the ground. I have the sudden urge to put a hand on his shoulder.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“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, Red Rising

“Ha! The great Reaper.” She slaps her thigh. “When have you ever cared what anyone thinks?” “You’re not just anyone.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Earth fought back and Earth lost.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“In the densest places of man, humanity most easily breaks down,”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“she’s got the passion for ideas, while I’ve got no extra passion for anything but her.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“The great rise because of Savagery. They rule in Ascendance.They fall because of their own Decadence.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“How many of you would sacrifice yourself to not kill, but merely hurt your enemy?”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Inside track,” the kid says. “And I don’t know about it. I know of it, you giant pisshead.” His name is Sevro, and I like his angle.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“He’s not a man made for affection. His face is pale and ghostly. Thirty-five and so old, so tired. A scar twists his upper lip. Gray streaks his thick hair.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“But in the end, don't those who rise by poison die by poison?”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“All men are not created equal,” he declares. Tall, imperious, an eagle of a man. “The weak have deceived you. They would say the meek should inherit the Earth. That the strong should nurture the gentle. This is the Noble Lie of Demokracy. The cancer that poisoned mankind.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“You make one tribe out of twelve,” I finally say. “By taking slaves.”

Just like the Society. Build on the backs of others. It isn’t cruel. It is practical.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“We grew together, and now are grown. In her eyes, I see my heart. In her breath, I hear my soul. She is my land. She is my kin. My love. She”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“So tell me, why would I shake hands with a wildfire when I can just sit back and watch it run out of things to consume?"
I nod and dangle the bait.
"Fire can be useful.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Sometimes I forget that the Institute is meant to teach me things,” I say to Mustang. The golden girl tilts her head at me. “Like how we must live for more?”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Any fool can stick a blade into another’s belly. The school’s role is to find the leaders of men, not the killers of men. So the point, you silly little children, is not to kill, but to conquer.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising