Top 300 N.K. Jemisin Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.”

— N.K. Jemisin

2. “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” – T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.”

— N.K. Jemisin

3. “We can never be gods, after all – but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

— N.K. Jemisin

4. “In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”

— N.K. Jemisin

5. “There is nothing foolish about hope.”

— N.K. Jemisin

6. “There is no logic to grief.”

— N.K. Jemisin

7. “Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.”

— N.K. Jemisin

8. “Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.”

— N.K. Jemisin

9. “The world can’t hurt you if you just ignore everything that’s wrong with it; well, not until it kills you anyway.”

— N.K. Jemisin

10. “Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the fifth and master of all.”

— N.K. Jemisin

11. “How can we prepare for the future if we won’t acknowledge the past?”

— N.K. Jemisin

12. “Determination could easily become obsession.”

— N.K. Jemisin

13. “Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Them them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at those contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve.”

— N.K. Jemisin

14. “They’re afraid because we exist, she says. There’s nothing we did to provoke their fear, other than exist. There’s nothing we can do to earn their approval, except stop existing – so we can either die like they want, or laugh at their cowardice and go on with our lives.”

— N.K. Jemisin

15. “But the real disaster is that Atlantis became just a story. It failed so catastrophically that the entire human race shifted into a branch of realities in which Atlantis never existed at all.”

— N.K. Jemisin

16. “Sometimes that’s all it takes to save a world, you see. A new vision. A new way of thinking, appearing at just the right time.”

— N.K. Jemisin

17. “There’s truth even in tainted knowledge, if one reads carefully.”

— N.K. Jemisin

18. “Father Earth thinks in ages, but he never, ever sleeps. Nor does he forget.”

— N.K. Jemisin

19. “If the gods do decide to wipe us out, is it such a bad thing? Maybe we’ve earned a little annihilation.”

— N.K. Jemisin

20. “Is tact simply not in your nature, or are you this offensive on purpose?”

— N.K. Jemisin

21. “I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember.”

— N.K. Jemisin

22. “Astra inclinant, sed non obligant;.”

— N.K. Jemisin

23. “So here is why I write what I do: We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories. And we all, every single one of us, no matter who we are and no matter what’s been taken from us or what poison we’ve internalized or how hard we’ve had to work to expel it – – we all get to dream.”

— N.K. Jemisin

24. “For all those that have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.”

— N.K. Jemisin

25. “After all, a person is herself, and others. Relationships chisel the final shape of one’s being. I am me, and you. Damaya was herself and the family that rejected her and the people of the Fulcrum who chiseled her to a fine point.”

— N.K. Jemisin

26. “Any woman can face the world alone, but why should we have to?”

— N.K. Jemisin

27. “But love like that doesn’t just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath. Yes. Horrible, isn’t it?”

— N.K. Jemisin

28. “This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.”

— N.K. Jemisin

29. “Peace is meaningless without freedom.”

— N.K. Jemisin

30. “This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another.”

— N.K. Jemisin

31. “It’s a gift if it makes us better. It’s a curse if we let it destroy us.”

— N.K. Jemisin

32. “After all, a person is herself, and others. Relationships chisel the final shape of one’s being. I am me, and you.”

— N.K. Jemisin

33. “It was said that the gods favored fools because they were entertaining to watch.”

— N.K. Jemisin

34. “I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”

— N.K. Jemisin

35. “It is important to appreciate beauty, even when it is evil.”

— N.K. Jemisin

36. “Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place.”

— N.K. Jemisin

37. “To those who’ve survived: Breathe. That’s it. Once more. Good. You’re good. Even if you’re not, you’re alive. That is a victory.”

— N.K. Jemisin

38. “The way of the world isn’t the strong devouring the weak, but the weak deceiving and poisoning and whispering in the ears of the strong until they become weak, too.”

— N.K. Jemisin

39. “Rising from the dead? Glowing at sunrise? What did that make him, the god of cheerful mornings and macabre surprises?”

— N.K. Jemisin

40. “Home is people,” she says to Asael, softly. Asael blinks. “Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.” Heresmith.”

— N.K. Jemisin

41. “He pretends to be less special than he is, because the world has punished him for loving himself.”

— N.K. Jemisin

42. “When we say “the world has ended,” it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine. But this is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. For the last time.”

— N.K. Jemisin

43. “You’re a gift of the earth – but Father Earth hates us, never forget, and his gifts are neither free nor safe.”

— N.K. Jemisin

44. “Imprisonment of orogenes was never the only option for ensuring the safety of society... Lynching was never the only option. The nodes were never the only option. All of these were choices. Different choices have always been possible.”

— N.K. Jemisin

45. “In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess... I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”

— N.K. Jemisin

46. “Time grows short, my love. Let’s end with the beginning of the world, shall we? Yes. We shall.”

— N.K. Jemisin

47. “The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within.”

— N.K. Jemisin

48. “Ah, my love. An apocalypse is a relative thing, isn’t it?”

— N.K. Jemisin

49. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” – Thomas Wolfe.”

— N.K. Jemisin

50. “Who misses what they have never, ever even imagined?”

— N.K. Jemisin