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The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1) QUOTES

The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1) QUOTES

1 " The Keju is a ruse to keep uneducated peasants right where they’ve always been. You slip past the Keju, they’ll find a way to expel you anyway. The Keju keeps the lower classes sedated. It keeps us dreaming. It’s not a ladder for mobility; it’s a way to keep people like me exactly where they were born. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

2 " Amateurs obsess over strategy...Professionals obsess over logistics. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

3 " Call off your men, or I will summon into existence things that should not be in this world "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

4 " Immigrants, we get the job done.

(Acknowlegments) "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

5 " War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

6 " I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

7 " Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

8 " They were monsters!" Rin shrieked. "They were not human!"

"Have you ever considered" he said slowly "that that was exactly what they though of us? "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

9 " We aren’t here to be sophisticated. We’re here to fuck people up. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

10 " I don't love you. And I can kill anything. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

11 " Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take the risk. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

12 " You humans always think you’re destined for things, for tragedy or for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

13 " Sir?” Kitay asked. The magistrate turned to look at him. “What?” With a grunt, Kitay raised the crate over his head and flung it to the ground. It landed on the dirt with a hard thud, not the tremendous crash Rin had rather been hoping for. The wooden lid of the crate popped off. Out rolled several very nice porcelain teapots, glazed with a lovely flower pattern. Despite their tumble, they looked unbroken. Then Kitay took to them with a slab of wood. When he was done smashing them, he pushed his wiry curls out of his face and whirled on the sweating magistrate, who cringed in his seat as if afraid Kitay might start smashing at him, too. “We are at war,” Kitay said. “And you are being evacuated because for gods know what reason, you’ve been deemed important to this country’s survival. So do your job. Reassure your people. Help us maintain order. Do not pack your fucking teapots. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

14 " Well, fuck the heavenly order of things. If getting married to a gross old man was her preordained role on this earth, then Rin was determined to rewrite it. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

15 " Nothing is written," said the Phoenix. "You humans always think you're destinied for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. You chose to take the exam. You chose to come to Sinegard. You chose to pledge Lore, you chose to study the paths of the gods, and you chose to follow your commander's demands over your master's warnings. At every critical juncture you were given an option; you were given a way out. Yet you picked precisely the roads that led you here. You are at this temple, kneeling before me, only because you wanted to be. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

16 " If there is a divine creator, some ultimate moral authority, then why do bad things happen to good people? And why would this deity create people at all, since people are such imperfect beings? "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

17 " Jiang was wrong. She was not dabbling in forces she could not control, for the gods were not dangerous. The gods had no power at all, except what she gave them. The gods could affect the universe only through humans like her. Her destiny had not been written in the stars, or in the registers of the Pantheon. She had made her choices fully and autonomously. And though she called upon the gods to aid her in battle, they were her tools from beginning to end. She was no victim of destiny. She was the last Speerly, commander of the Cike, and a shaman who called the gods to do her bidding. And she would call the gods to do such terrible things. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

18 " When man begins to think that he is responsible for writing the script of the world, he forgets the forces that dream up our reality. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

19 " It’s easy to be brave. Harder to know when not to fight. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)

20 " If you're focused only on your enemy's weapon, you'll always be on the defensive. Look past the weapon to your target. Focus on what you want to kill. "

― R.F. Kuang , The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)