Top 50 T.A. White Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Hate and prejudice flourished in ignorance. It was easier to believe a stereotype when you never had anyone to compare to your misconceptions. It was harder when you had a living, breathing person challenging them.”

— T.A. White

2. “One step at a time. Like everything else in life. Focus on the next thing. Only then could you look up.”

— T.A. White

3. “When blind faith inspired you to compromise your ethics and morals, Tate thought something might be wrong in the belief system.”

— T.A. White

4. “Sometimes storms revealed hidden treasures, wiping away the old rot and replacing it with something stronger. Other times they washed everything away, leaving nothing in their wake but devastation.”

— T.A. White

5. “What do you want, tin can?” Raider asked. “You know that’s not my name, meat sack.”

— T.A. White

6. “Sometimes, it sucked when being a good friend meant you had to be a bastard.”

— T.A. White

7. “Then they’re fools. Women are some of the most vicious fighters I’ve ever seen and can be just as capable as any man.” “Makes sense. In nature, the female is likely to be the meaner one of the species, especially when it comes to the young,” Shea said.”

— T.A. White

8. “Love was a choice you made over and over again. You could close yourself off from it as Eva had for as long as she could remember, or you could embrace it.”

— T.A. White

9. “The truth is a weapon best wielded carefully.”

— T.A. White

10. “She’d learned many hard lessons about the peril of letting hope run away with you. It was the ultimate liar, an illusion turning smart people into fools, sundering their hearts from their chests when hope inevitably crashed them against the rocky shore.”

— T.A. White

11. “The strong know you have to make your own justice.”

— T.A. White

12. “Jin made a sound as high pitched as a tea kettle as his spherical body vibrated with excitement. “Pirate hunters. We’re going to be pirate hunters.” Damn it. She’d lost him. Jin bobbed up and down, looking like a jack in the box. “I never say this, but be yourself, Kira, and we can realize our lifelong dream.” Jin screamed to himself as he careened in a circle. “We’ll get a big fancy hat and an artificial leg. This is going to be great.”

— T.A. White

13. “You’re a menace,” Finn told her. Kira nodded. “So I’ve been told.” She’d never let that stop her before. She didn’t see why she’d change now.”

— T.A. White

14. “You could accomplish some truly heinous things once emotion has been tucked away. Anger.”

— T.A. White

15. “Kira looked at her. “What did I tell you about picking fights?” Elena gazed innocently up at her. “Not to get caught?” “Try again,” Kira said dryly.”

— T.A. White

16. “Graydon cupped her neck, drawing her down to him. “You leave me speechless, my soul.”

— T.A. White

17. “The point was that she was right, and they were wrong. If they’d listened, everybody would still be alive. They didn’t, so they were dead. Not her problem. She’d done her job.”

— T.A. White

18. “You didn’t win battles by being nice or polite. You won them by doing what was necessary, despite the personal cost.”

— T.A. White

19. “Humans, whatever they might mean to the Tuann, had saved her. At her lowest moments, they’d found her, given her warmth and companionship. Not just once, but many times. She’d sacrificed more than Graydon would ever know for humanity’s cause, for their very survival. She might have distanced herself from them, but it didn’t mean she’d forgotten. Nor did she plan to leave them behind because it was convenient.”

— T.A. White

20. “You could accomplish some truly heinous things once emotion has been tucked away. Anger dies, eventually, if you sate it with enough blood. Hate fades. Grief dwindles. There are reasons behind emotion. Such is not the case with true detachment. “Where.”

— T.A. White

21. “This was a mistake,” she said. For so many reasons that she couldn’t afford to name. “One I fully intend to repeat again and again.” She had no answer for that, choosing to stage a tactical retreat instead.”

— T.A. White

22. “Listening to the nonsense of others or comparing yourself to them will only serve to hold you back. Develop the talents you have until you know every facet of them.”

— T.A. White

23. “But she knew better than anybody, home wasn’t a place; it’s a state of mind. It’s the people you’re with. And for her, those people were all here.”

— T.A. White

24. “What are they doing?” he asked with a scowl. “Practicing,” Kira said succinctly. “Practicing for what?” “The shitstorm that is life.”

— T.A. White

25. “He gave her a look. One that said he was this close to relegating her to idiot territory.”

— T.A. White

26. “In and out, my ass,” she told Jin as she sidestepped the man she’d dumped at her feet and moved toward Spitzy. “This isn’t my fault. No one told you to perform feats of heroism. You did that all on your own,” Jin griped as he trailed her.”

— T.A. White

27. “She knew if she ever found the person to fit all her jagged edges and broken bits she’d never let them go.”

— T.A. White

28. “I’ve always admired your ability to create enemies without even trying,” Raider said. “It’s good to see that hasn’t changed in the intervening years.”

— T.A. White

29. “I’m not so prideful as to deny myself an opportunity, no matter how it came to me.”

— T.A. White

30. “The one thing you learn if you survive long enough is what to give head space to and what to ignore.”

— T.A. White

31. “Jin crowed. “The Kira special. A remark guaranteed to send the recipient to Angerville, by way of Fury Road. I like your style, Kira Forrest. It gets me right in my tingly bits.”

— T.A. White

32. “You hit me,” she said. “It was an accident.” “This will be too,” she informed him.”

— T.A. White

33. “What are you doing?” she hissed, struggling to right herself. There was a sharp crack and then a stinging in her ass cheeks. A series of catcalls and whistles sent Shea’s face up in flames.”

— T.A. White

34. “How much energy does she need to burn to be a reasonable person?” Jin asked, ignoring the exchange.”

— T.A. White

35. “Just make sure you’re not caught, will you?” Kira said. He snorted. “I’m not the one who always gets caught.” She shot him a dirty look. He might have had a point, but she didn’t have to like it.”

— T.A. White

36. “I’m going to appeal to his better nature,” Graydon said. Solal sighed. “You mean you’re going to threaten him.” Graydon shrugged. Same difference.”

— T.A. White

37. “Your luck continues to trend toward the shittier side,” Jin observed.”

— T.A. White

38. “Fallon’s eyes said they would discussing this later. Shea’s responded that there was nothing up for discussion.”

— T.A. White

39. “Witt paused by Dane as he followed her down the hill. “Perhaps you shouldn’t do any more thinking. It really doesn’t suit you.”

— T.A. White

40. “That was pretty much another way to say kidnapping. There wasn’t a lot of places a relationship could go from there.”

— T.A. White

41. “They never bothered to warn me that those who stood next to the Phoenix tend to get burned in the same fire.”

— T.A. White

42. “She yearned for Graydon’s presence. Pushing him off a cliff would have gone a long way to improving her mood right about now.”

— T.A. White

43. “He appeared to be in his early thirties, though I suspected he was hundreds of years older than that. He was attractive if you could get past the crappy personality that made you just want to punch him in the face while screaming ’you’re not the boss of me.”

— T.A. White

44. “Naw. I think I’m growing on her. She hasn’t tried to escape for a whole week.”

— T.A. White

45. “She’d found being proactive worked a whole heck of a lot better than waiting for others to make the decisions for you.”

— T.A. White

46. “You seem to think I’m easy to kill. I’m not.” “This is a true statement,” Jin agreed. “She’s like a cockroach, only hardier.”

— T.A. White

47. “If this was her home, it was Jin’s too. When he’d been alive in the traditional sense, he’d been like her, his abilities different but strange. Almost magical.”

— T.A. White

48. “Himoto had once called war ninety percent boredom so extreme you’d do anything for relief and ten percent sheer, unrelenting terror.”

— T.A. White

49. “She wished Jin was awake so they could make fun of him together.”

— T.A. White

50. “Kira thrust with her palm, hitting the woman’s chest and catching her off guard. A grunt left her as she swayed, tripping and falling to the ground at Graydon’s feet. He regarded the woman with an amused twist to his lips before his gaze rose to find Kira’s. “I didn’t know we were at the gift-giving stage of our courtship. I confess I didn’t get you anything.”

— T.A. White