Top 250 Sabaa Tahir Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “There will be so much more in between. So much uncertainty. I don’t know if we’ll survive the catacombs, let alone the rest of it. But it doesn’t matter. For now, these steps are enough. These first few precious steps into darkness. Into the unknown. Into freedom.”

— Sabaa Tahir

102. “Because I know this feeling sweeping through me all too well, the feeling that all my effort, all I have worked for, means nothing. That everything and everyone is a lie. That all is cruel and unforgiving and that there is no justice.”

— Sabaa Tahir

103. “She feels out the melody the way a blind man feels his way forward in an unfamiliar room.”

— Sabaa Tahir

104. “I will find you, Laia. I will find a way. This is not our end.”

— Sabaa Tahir

105. “And his champions, those three flames in which he placed all his hopes – Laia of Serra, Helene Aquilla, and Elias Veturius – I smother those flames. For I have taken the Blood Shrike’s soul. The Waiting Place has taken the Soul Catcher’s humanity. And I will crush Laia of Serra’s heart.”

— Sabaa Tahir

106. “You are lucky enough to love someone who loves you back. He is alive and breathing and in the same vicinity as you. By the skies, do something about it. For however long you have. For whatever time you get. Because if you don’t, I swear that you’ll regret it for all your years.”

— Sabaa Tahir

107. “I don’t know if I believe in hell, but if it had a sound, it would be the strangled howl of your father finally realizing that the love of his life is being put into the ground.”

— Sabaa Tahir

108. “Strange how monsters can reach from beyond the grave, as potent in death as they were in life.”

— Sabaa Tahir

109. “Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after.”

— Sabaa Tahir

110. “You will burn for you are an ember in the ashes.”

— Sabaa Tahir

111. “Nacimos para la guerra, Elias. Es todo lo que hemos conocido. Tus errores solo definen el resto de tu vida si los dejas. No los dejes.”

— Sabaa Tahir

112. “In the night, your loneliness crushes you, as if the sky itself has swooped down to smother you in its cold arms.”

— Sabaa Tahir

113. “Your fear is good. It makes your story real.”

— Sabaa Tahir

114. “Sometimes loneliness is a choice.”

— Sabaa Tahir

115. “I have survived this feeling before, and I will survive it again. In this fiery hellscape of a world, this mess of blood and madness, justice exists only for those who take it. I’ll be damned if I’m not one of them.”

— Sabaa Tahir

116. “No one wants to fight for nothing.”

— Sabaa Tahir

117. “Great passions grow into monsters in the dark of the mind; but if you share them with loving friends they remain human, they can be endured.”

— Sabaa Tahir

118. “I’m here because it’s been months since you kissed me, but I think about that moment so often it feels like it happened yesterday. And because when I saw you go down in the battle, I thought I’d – I’d tear apart the world if anything happened to you.”

— Sabaa Tahir

119. “Exhaustion is temporary. Pain is temporary. But Helene dying because I didn’t find a way to get her back on time – that’s permanent.”

— Sabaa Tahir

120. “But you, Helene Aquilla, are no swift-burning spark. You are a torch against the night – if you dare to let yourself burn.”

— Sabaa Tahir

121. “You killed my mother, who had a lion’s heart, and my sister, who laughed like the rain, and my father, who captured truth with a few strokes of a pen.”

— Sabaa Tahir

122. “The task seemed like a gift. For after a few minutes of watching them, I was half in love already.”

— Sabaa Tahir

123. “Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.”

— Sabaa Tahir

124. “I’m not her ally, Blood Shrike.” The Nightbringer cocks his head, and I sense his amusement. “I am her master.”

— Sabaa Tahir

125. “I need you to disappear. To never leave. I need to have never met you or felt you. You. You. You. I need you.”

— Sabaa Tahir

126. “By the time we reach the stretch of dunes that lead to Nur, the moon is high, the galaxy a blaze of silver above. But we are all exhausted from fighting the wind. Izzi’s walk has deteriorated to a stumble, and both Keenan and I pant in tiredness. Even Elias struggles, stopping short enough times that I begin to worry for him. “I.”

— Sabaa Tahir

127. “His eyes are unfathomably sad as he lifts my chin. “Most people,” Cain says, “are nothing but glimmers in the great darkness of time. But you, Helene Aquilla, are no swift-burning spark. You are a torch against the night – if you dare to let yourself burn.”

— Sabaa Tahir

128. “I don’t smile at her. It will only scare her. For a female slave, a smile from a Mask is not usually a good thing.”

— Sabaa Tahir

129. “Emifal Firdaant.”

— Sabaa Tahir

130. “The ocean waves thunder on, and it is man who must swim amongst them. The wind blows, cold and brittle, and it is man who must protect against it. The earth shakes and cracks, swallows and destroys, but it is man who must walk upon it. So it is with death. I cannot surrender.”

— Sabaa Tahir

131. “For the Beloved who woke with the dawning of the world is no more. And for a single, anguished moment, the earth itself mourns him.”

— Sabaa Tahir

132. “She takes my arm like an old friend would. “Welcome to the Waiting Place, the realm of ghosts. I am the Soul Catcher, and I am here to help you cross to the other side.”

— Sabaa Tahir

133. “Beauty’s a curse when one lives among men.”

— Sabaa Tahir

134. “I recognize the smell – his smell – spice and rain.”

— Sabaa Tahir

135. “And then she’s gone.”

— Sabaa Tahir

136. “As I head back to Blackcliff, I try to make sense of what just happened. I want to believe that I can trust Mazen, that he’ll hold to his end of the bargain. But something is off. I’ve struggled for days to eke out extra time from him. It makes no sense for him to suddenly give it away so easily. And something else sets my nerves on edge. It’s how quickly Mazen forgot about me when Sana showed up. And it’s how, when he promised to save my brother, he didn’t quite look me in the eyes.”

— Sabaa Tahir

137. “Too much fear and you’re paralyzed. Too little fear and you’re arrogant.”

— Sabaa Tahir

138. “Everyone believes that nothing concerns them until the monsters are knocking on their doors!”

— Sabaa Tahir

139. “You fool, Helene. When you love, there is always more pain.”

— Sabaa Tahir

140. “I thought I served a great cause: protecting the Empire. But all I did was protect people who were never in any danger.”

— Sabaa Tahir

141. “Who my child becomes is not the sum of what happened to him.”

— Sabaa Tahir

142. “In the end, I don’t answer her question. She doesn’t answer mine. Instead, we sit without words, watching the city, the river, the desert beyond, our secrets heavy between us.”

— Sabaa Tahir

143. “Elias and Laia are each other’s countermelodies. I am just a dissonant note.”

— Sabaa Tahir

144. “This is no band of thieves. It’s the Resistance.”

— Sabaa Tahir

145. “Once, I’d have wanted that. I’d have wanted someone to tell me what to do, to fix everything. Once, I’d have wanted to be saved.”

— Sabaa Tahir

146. “The best lies come from the truth.”

— Sabaa Tahir

147. “It takes only a split second for life to go horribly wrong. To fix the mess, I need a thousand things to go right. The distance from one bit of luck to the next feels as great as the distance across oceans. But, I decide in this moment, I will bridge that distance, again and again, until I win. I will not fail.”

— Sabaa Tahir

148. “She is beneath me, her ocean eyes terrified as I pin her scim arm down. Our bodies are entangled, entwined, but Helene is foreign to me suddenly, unknowable as the heavens. I tear a dagger from my chest, and my blood roars as my fingers touch the cold hilt. She knees me and grabs her scim, determined to finish me before I can finish her. I’m too fast. I lift the dagger high, my rage peaking, holding like the highest note of a mountain storm. And then I bring the blade down.”

— Sabaa Tahir

149. “Give me your word as a Tribesman that you won’t double-cross me.” Even I know how valuable such a vow is. “I don’t trust you otherwise.” “You have my word.” He shoves me forward, and I stumble, just catching myself from falling. Swine! I bite my lip to keep from saying it. Let him think he’s cowed me. Let him think he’s won. Soon, he’ll realize his mistake: He vowed to play fair. But I didn’t.”

— Sabaa Tahir

150. “When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it: your spirit. Your heart.”

— Sabaa Tahir