Top 500 Neal Shusterman Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “If love of money is the root of all evil, then having money is the root of all boredom. When you can have everything, you find there’s nothing you really want. When you can do anything, you find there’s nothing you really care to do. You become lazy. Life feels like a boulder you don’t want to lift.”

— Neal Shusterman

402. “It was Rowan who had coined the term “lettuce-kid” to describe them. Both of them were born sandwiched somewhere in the middle of large families, and where far from being their parents’ favorites. “I got a couple of brothers that are the meat, a few sisters that are cheese and tomatoes, is I guess I’m the lettuce.”

— Neal Shusterman

403. “Genius serves no one if it never makes it out of your head.”

— Neal Shusterman

404. “Each day the sea is exactly the same. We seem no closer, and no farther from anything.”

— Neal Shusterman

405. “Wars are often waged not because of what we believe, but because of the things we want others to believe.”

— Neal Shusterman

406. “Mitch’s father’s exclusive gated community had an extensive guard gate. In fact, it had two. It also had an electrified fence. And towers with armed guards. All things considered, few gated communities could be more exclusive than the Colorado State Penitentiary.”

— Neal Shusterman

407. “Good in Crisis; Sucks at Normal.’ That about sums up my whole life, doesn’t it?”

— Neal Shusterman

408. “And I think, if thoughts are worth a penny, how much less promises must be worth. Especially the ones you’re likely to break.”

— Neal Shusterman

409. “Good thing about bad rubbish is you can make the stench go away just by covering it up. It never comes back as long as you keep a tight lid on it.”

— Neal Shusterman

410. “But we People of Chance do believe in people of second chance.”

— Neal Shusterman

411. “Suddenly it was obvious to Connor why they don’t teach it. Once education was restructured and corporatized, they didn’t want kids knowing how close they came to toppling the government. They didn’t want kids to know how much power they really had.”

— Neal Shusterman

412. “Many believe that the Thunder refers to a collection of human knowledge-perhaps with mechanical arms for the rapid turning of pages. A library of thought, if you will, roaring into consciousness after the arrival of the Toll on Earth, much like thunder follows lightning.”

— Neal Shusterman

413. “We make mistakes. Believe me, if Goddard is installed as High Blade, half of the scythes who put him there will regret it in the morning, but by then it will be too late!”

— Neal Shusterman

414. “Can’t you see? I don’t get to do ANYTHING I want! Because I’m too busy just trying to stay alive. And you come here with your fancy school uniform and your mother’s jewelry and your neighbor’s freaking car, and you think you can buy your way in? What kind of idiot buys his way into the bottom?”

— Neal Shusterman

415. “There’s a quickening of her heart when she sees him. She tells herself it’s anger.”

— Neal Shusterman

416. “The homes here are almost identical, but not quite, full of people almost identical, but not quite.”

— Neal Shusterman

417. “You’ve got questions coming out of you like farts on Thanksgiving.”

— Neal Shusterman

418. “It is the nature of life to fear its own end. This is how I know that we are truly alive.”

— Neal Shusterman

419. “Lord, if what I’m doing is wrong, then by all means strike me down. Otherwise set me free.”

— Neal Shusterman

420. “I’m leaping off a cliff only to discover I can fly... and then realizing there’s nowhere to land. Ever. That’s what’s going on.”

— Neal Shusterman

421. “The exploration of possibility has always been the realm of science. The true scientist leave practical application to others.”

— Neal Shusterman

422. “The building was no warmer than the street outside, and it smelled like something died in there from smelling something else that died in there.”

— Neal Shusterman

423. “I am what you made me.”

— Neal Shusterman

424. “The result leaves my brain somewhere in orbit beyond Saturn, where it can’t bother anyone, especially me.”

— Neal Shusterman

425. “You should learn to relish the hunger more than the feast, lest you become a glutton.”

— Neal Shusterman

426. “Even though the whole world had slid of its axis. Breakfast was breakfast. How dare it be?”

— Neal Shusterman

427. “I have to realize that there are only two perfect acts. They are the two most important acts known to me, but I forbid myself to perform them, and leave them in the hands of humankind. They are the creation of life... and life’s taking.”

— Neal Shusterman

428. “I can’t help what I have any more than you can help what you don’t.”

— Neal Shusterman

429. “First rule of motherhood, dearie: men are screw-ups. Learn it now and you’ll be a whole lot happier.”

— Neal Shusterman

430. “We all need a moratorium on misery now and then.”

— Neal Shusterman

431. “Okay. And what are your pronouns, Jeri?” Jeri found it refreshing that she asked so directly.”

— Neal Shusterman

432. “Rowan grinned. “Come now, Your Excellency, there hasn’t been a terrorist in hundreds of years. I’m just a janitor cleaning filth from dark corners.”

— Neal Shusterman

433. “Are people really such sheep that they can be fooled? Maybe. Or maybe with so much conflicting media, people just shut down. Maybe that’s the point.”

— Neal Shusterman

434. “There are times I feel like I’m the kid screaming at the bottom of the well, and my dog runs off to pee on trees instead of getting help.”

— Neal Shusterman

435. “Impressive, isn’t it?” Divan says with pride. “I purchased it from a Brazilian artist, who has apparently made a career working in flesh. He claims his artwork is to protest unwinding, but I ask you, how much of a protest can it be if he uses the unwound for his art?”

— Neal Shusterman

436. “Nothing awful is without its beautiful side.”

— Neal Shusterman

437. “Suddenly, Tara’s accomplishment was clear. She had lined up allies among the school’s various groups and got them all to work together for probably the first time in the school’s history. She was like a master builder who could bend materials like stone and steel and clay to her will... except her materials were flesh and spirit.”

— Neal Shusterman

438. “Sometimes there are moments when we objectively face the never, and it overwhelms us.”

— Neal Shusterman

439. “The harder you scrutinize randomness,” Faraday declared, “the more coincidence seems like a design.”

— Neal Shusterman

440. “Can I throw you under a truck some other time.”

— Neal Shusterman

441. “It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.”

— Neal Shusterman

442. “People are vessels,” Jeri had said to her. “They hold whatever’s poured into them.”

— Neal Shusterman

443. “It’s a big question. Where do you begin to change the world?”

— Neal Shusterman

444. “Incredible. It never ceases to amaze Starkey how far society will go to protect the children it loves and to discard the ones it doesn’t.”

— Neal Shusterman

445. “Instead of ignoring me, Frankie was suddenly noticing every little thing I did, wondering why I did it. Christina started asking me questions about things, like I was the smarter brother. Dad was now confiding in me about things that were really none of my business, and Mom started treating me like I was actually a responsible human being. It was all very disturbing.”

— Neal Shusterman

446. “There are few things he can stand less than a bunch of morons standing around looking at something that doesn’t work and wondering who’s going to fix it.”

— Neal Shusterman

447. “But just because we have the ability to label it, doesn’t mean we really know what’s in the box.”

— Neal Shusterman

448. “What’s that expression? The devil you know is better than the one you don’t?”

— Neal Shusterman

449. “Perhaps the universe should have deigned to provide such warnings, but scythes were no more supernatural than tax collectors in the grand scheme of things. They showed up, did their unpleasant business, and were gone.”

— Neal Shusterman

450. “The best we can hope for is to be humble in our arrogance.”

— Neal Shusterman