Library of Souls Quotes

“No one can hurt you as badly as the people you love.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story. I would know: a story had swallowed my whole life.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“To some it might’ve seemed callous, the way she boxed up her pain and set it aside, but I knew her well enough now to understand. She had a heart the size of France, and the lucky few whom she loved with it were loved with every square inch—but its size made it dangerous, too. If she let it feel everything, she’d be wrecked. So she had to tame it, shush it, shut it up. Float the worst pains off to an island that was quickly filling with them, where she would go to live one day.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“An opportunist disguised as a friend can be every bit as dangerous as an outright enemy.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“And it occured to me, standing there, just breathing with her, quiet settling around us, that those might be the three most beautiful words in the English language. We have time.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Maybe," she said. "Maybe. But now you're making promises you might not be able to keep, and that's how people in love get very badly hurt.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“She had this amazing capacity to turn sadness into anger and anger into action, which meant nothing ever kept her down for long.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Doubt is the pinprick in the life raft.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“What a beautiful day to go to hell”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Early in life we recognize certain talents in ourselves, and we focus on those to the exclusion of others. It’s not that nothing else is possible, but that nothing else was nurtured.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“These strange-looking people weren’t peculiars. They were nerds. We were very much in the present.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Emma laughed darkly. "It's a completely mad idea, I know. But my brain is a hope-making engine."
"I'm so glad," I said. "Mine is a worst-case-scenario generator."
"We need each other, then."
"Yes. But we already knew that, I think.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Maybe lots of people go through life never knowing they’re peculiar.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“I felt like one of those mythical heroes who fights his way back from the underworld only to realize that the world above is every bit as damned as the one below.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“There was something sweet about holding a tangible thing that had been touched and marked upon by someone I loved.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“There was, in fact, a street sign to that effect—the first I’d seen in all of Devil’s Acre. Louche Lane, it read in fancy handwritten script. Piracy discouraged.
“Discouraged?” I said. “Then what’s murder? Frowned upon?”
“I believe murder is ‘tolerated with reservations.’ ”
“Is anything illegal here?” Addison asked.
“Library late fines are stiff. Ten lashes a day, and that’s just for paperbacks.”
“There’s a library?”
“Two. Though one won’t lend because all the books are bound in human skin and quite valuable.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Early in life we recognize certain talents in ourselves, and we focus on those to the exclusion of others. It's not that nothing else is possible, but that nothing else was nurtured.”
― Ransom Riggs , Library of Souls

“I was the perfect automaton: blessed with ability but cursed with ignorance.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“The trouble with the merely unwise/deeply stupid line is that you often don’t know which side you’re on until it’s too late.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“my brain is a hope-making engine.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Ahh,” Sharon said airily from the corner, “the sweet lies lovers tell …”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“I hate fleeing as much as anyone,” I said, “but Emma and I look like nineteenth-century axe murderers, and you’re a dog who wears glasses. We’re bound to be noticed.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Just because I’m a capitalist doesn’t mean I’m a black-hearted bastard.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Never mind compassion! Fie on loyalty! If you’re as intelligent and ambitious a fellow as I think you are, then you’ll recognize an extraordinary opportunity for advancement when you see one.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Just a story. It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story. I would know: a story had swallowed my whole life.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“Why did we have more than we knew what to do with, while they had less than they needed to stay alive?”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“I didn’t want to kill the hollow any more than I wanted to kill a strange animal. In the course of leading this creature around by the nose, I had gotten close enough to understand that there was more than just void inside it. There was a tiny spark, a little marble of soul at the bottom of a deep pool. It wasn’t hollow—not really.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“I believe murder is ‘tolerated with reservations.’ ” “Is anything illegal here?” Addison asked. “Library late fines are stiff. Ten lashes a day, and that’s just for paperbacks.” “There’s a library?” “Two. Though one won’t lend because all the books are bound in human skin and quite valuable.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls

“In the Old Peculiar language, the word ymbryne (pronounced imm-brinn) means “revolution” or “circuit.”
― Ransom Riggs, Library of Souls