Top 500 Tahereh Mafi Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “I wondered, for the very first time, if maybe I was doing this whole thing wrong. If maybe I’d allowed myself to be blinded by my own anger to the exclusion of all else. If maybe, just maybe, I’d been so determined not to be stereotyped that I’d begun to stereotype everyone around me.”

— Tahereh Mafi

152. “My heart is pounding so hard I’m surprised it’s not bleeding.”

— Tahereh Mafi

153. “If the decision you’ve made has brought you closer to humanity, then you’ve done the right thing.”

— Tahereh Mafi

154. “I hate the lackadaisical ennui of a sun too preoccupied with itself to notice the infinite hours we spend in its presence.”

— Tahereh Mafi

155. “My eyes break open. Two shattered windows filling my mouth with glass.”

— Tahereh Mafi

156. “So you’re exactly like a Venus flytrap. You reel ‘em in. Clamp ‘em down. Eat ‘em up.” I didn’t respond. “Mmmmm,” he said. “You’re like a sexy super scary plant.” I close my eyes. Covered my mouth in horror. “Why is that so wrong?” he said then bent down to meet my gaze. Tugged on a lock of my hair to get me to look up. “Why does this have to be so horrible? Why can’t you see how awesome this is?”

— Tahereh Mafi

157. “A handful of letters doesn’t always make a word, love.”

— Tahereh Mafi

158. “Find me a cure for these tears, I’d really like to exhale for the first time in my life.”

— Tahereh Mafi

159. “Juliette.” I close my eyes. He says, “I don’t want you to call me Warner anymore.” I open my eyes. “I want you to know me,” he says, breathless, his fingers pushing a stray strand of hair away from my face. “I don’t want to be Warner with you,” he says. “I want it to be different now. I want you to call me Aaron.”

— Tahereh Mafi

160. “Ocean had given me hope. He’d made me believe in people again. His sincerity had rubbed me raw, had peeled back the stubborn layers of anger I’d lived in for so long. Ocean made me want to give the world a second chance.”

— Tahereh Mafi

161. “Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures. No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence.”

— Tahereh Mafi

162. “I’m nineteen years old,” he clarifies. “I’m a fairly impressive specimen for my age, I know.”

— Tahereh Mafi

163. “Just because I’m going to hell doesn’t mean you’ll ever deserve her.”

— Tahereh Mafi

164. “I understood too well what it was like to feel like you were defined by one superficial thing- to feel like you would never excape the box people had put you in.”

— Tahereh Mafi

165. “I looked out at the world around me and no longer saw nuance. I saw nothing but the potential for pain and the subsequent need to protect myself, constantly.”

— Tahereh Mafi

166. “His eyes are the perfect shade of cobalt, blue like a blossoming bruise, clear and deep and decided.”

— Tahereh Mafi

167. “It’s like there are a million screams caught inside of my chest but I have to keep them all in because what’s the point of screaming if you’ll never be heard and no one will ever hear me in her. No one will ever hear me again.”

— Tahereh Mafi

168. “My eyes open to 2 eyes 2 lips 2 ears 2 eyebrows. I stifle my scream my urgency to run the crippling horror gripping my limbs. “You’re a b-b-b-b – ”“And you’re a girl.”

— Tahereh Mafi

169. “Words are like seeds, I think, planted into our hearts at a tender age. They take root in us as we grow, settling deep into our souls.”

— Tahereh Mafi

170. “I feel like I’ve been split open and stuffed with sunshine.”

— Tahereh Mafi

171. “If you hide your heart, he will never be able to take it from you.”

— Tahereh Mafi

172. “Very well then, Ms. Ferrars. Good luck, and godspeed. Our world is in your hands.”

— Tahereh Mafi

173. “We have lost our humanity.”

— Tahereh Mafi

174. “Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don’t tell him.”

— Tahereh Mafi

175. “I didn’t want to be draped in silk. All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart. I saw the world and its lack of compassion, its harsh, grating judgement, and its cold, resentful eyes. I saw it all around me.”

— Tahereh Mafi

176. “His skin is flawless, unblemished, his jawline sharp and strong. His eyes are the palest shade of emerald I’ve ever seen. He’s beautiful. His crooked smile is calculated evil.”

— Tahereh Mafi

177. “The world tried to crush you,” I say, gently now, “and you refused to be shattered.”

— Tahereh Mafi

178. “Hanging out with you has made me weird, J. All I do is sit around thinking about my feelings these days. Thanks for that.”

— Tahereh Mafi

179. “Hate looks just like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into the semblance of something too passive to punch.”

— Tahereh Mafi

180. “Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.”

— Tahereh Mafi

181. “Kenji is a walking paradox of Unflinchingly Serious Person and 12-Year-Old Boy Going Through Puberty all rolled into one.”

— Tahereh Mafi

182. “I don’t have the time, the energy, or the interest to deal with your problems.”

— Tahereh Mafi

183. “The sun is an arrogant thing, always leaving the world behind when it tires of us. The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do.”

— Tahereh Mafi

184. “It is only in the desperate seconds before death that we realize the windows against which we broke our bodies were only mirrors, all along.”

— Tahereh Mafi

185. “I don’t think you’re crazy,” I say. “And I don’t think you’re a psychopath. I don’t think you’re a heartless murderer. I don’t care what anyone else says about you. I think you’re a good person.”

— Tahereh Mafi

186. “And even when you’re ready to let go. When you’re ready to break free. When you’re ready to be brand-new. Loneliness is an old friend standing beside you in the mirror, looking you in the eye, challenging you to live your life without it. You can’t find the words to fight yourself, to fight the words screaming that you’re not enough never enough never ever enough. Loneliness is a bitter, wretched companion. Sometimes.”

— Tahereh Mafi

187. “Sometimes a book isn’t a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Sometimes it’s the only story you knew how to tell.”

— Tahereh Mafi

188. “I only know now that the scientists are wrong. The world is flat. I know because I was tossed right off the edge and I’ve been trying to hold on for 17 years. I’ve been trying to climb back up for 17 years but it’s nearly impossible to beat gravity when no one is willing to give you a hand.”

— Tahereh Mafi

189. “I have a great fear of drowning in the ocean of my own silence.”

— Tahereh Mafi

190. “I’m having a panic attack, you inconsiderate ass.”

— Tahereh Mafi

191. “My body is a carnivorous flower, a poisonous houseplant, a loaded gun with a million triggers and he’s more than ready to fire.”

— Tahereh Mafi

192. “I promise myself then, in that moment, that I will hold him forever, just like this, until all the pain and torture and suffering is gone, until he’s given a chance to live the kind of life where no one can wound him this deeply ever again.”

— Tahereh Mafi

193. “I would happily watch the world go up in flames if anything happened to her.”

— Tahereh Mafi

194. “I mean, I wasn’t fine. I would be fine. But I wasn’t there yet.”

— Tahereh Mafi

195. “Happiness does not happen. Happiness must be uncovered, separated from the skin of pain. It must be claimed. Kept close. Protected.”

— Tahereh Mafi

196. “I want you to make a list of all of your favorite things, and I want to be on it.”

— Tahereh Mafi

197. “Op de een of andere manier doet het me letterlijk pijn in mijn hart en toch kan ik maar niet ophouden de bladzijden om te slaan.”

— Tahereh Mafi

198. “You’re going to go on to do incredible things. I’ve always known that. I think I just wanted to be a part of it.”

— Tahereh Mafi

199. “Twice. Once for Adam. Once for Warner.”

— Tahereh Mafi

200. “I’m feeling stupid. I’m feeling brave because I’m feeling stupid.”

— Tahereh Mafi