Top 100 Tomi Adeyemi Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I TRY NOT to think of him. But when I do, I hear the tides.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

52. “You two. Even when you crash, you intertwine.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

53. “I release a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

54. “A stunning dark-skinned goddess with vibrant blue eyes drops a single tear onto the world. As it lands, it explodes, creating oceans, lakes, streams.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

55. “Those are Father’s words, Inan. His decisions. Not yours. We are our own people. We make our own choices.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

56. “If you wish to hit me, you will have to try a little harder than that.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

57. “We may have triumphed, but this is no victory.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

58. “Our shadows bleed together like mixing paints, deep purples turning black with raw power. Our voices rise as the shadows take shape, condensing until they funnel into one giant arrowhead.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

59. “You can’t enslave an entire people for the rebellion of a few.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

60. “Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it. I told myself that if just one person could read it and have their hearts or minds changed, then I would’ve done something meaningful against a problem that often feels so much bigger than myself.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

61. “The gods don’t make mistakes.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

62. “The monarchy has magic now and they still hate us. It was never about magic at all!”

— Tomi Adeyemi

63. “As long as we don’t have magic, they will never treat us with respect. They need to know we can hit them back. If they burn our homes, we burn theirs, too.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

64. “Our lack of power and our oppression are one in the same...”

— Tomi Adeyemi

65. “But worst of all is the freckled girl. A Cancer. A harbinger of death. Dark green clouds of disease spew from her hands. With one breath, the soldiers’ bodies seize.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

66. “Not like that,” Na’imah instructs, shaking her head so hard that a shower of orange flower petals fall from her curls. Dragonflies orbit her head as she repositions a maji’s hands around her cheetanaire’s temples. “Feel the connection.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

67. “On earth, Sky Mother created humans, her children of blood and bone. In the heavens she gave birth to the gods and goddesses. Each would come to embody a different fragment of her soul.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

68. “I can’t even sell a fish without causing the destruction of my entire village. How am I supposed to be the maji’s only hope?”

— Tomi Adeyemi

69. “Each would come to embody a different fragment of her soul.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

70. “Let them taste the terror they make us swallow.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

71. “Our heritage transformed into a thing to hate.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

72. “When the elders built this place, it was only bare mountaintops.′ I look to the crowd. ‘It didn’t become a home because they filled it with towers. It became a home because they built it together. This land, these temples – they’re not what matters. As long as we have each other, we will carry Orisha in our veins. No one can ever take that away.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

73. “They wear their secrets like glittering diamonds, embroidery woven through their lavish buba tops and wrapped iro skirts. Their lies and lily-scented perfumes taint the honeyed aroma of sweet cakes I am no longer allowed to eat.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

74. “No chains bind me, but I can’t move. Crisp air fills my lungs, yet I can’t breathe.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

75. “Good hearts don’t leave scars like that.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

76. “I’ve been a sheep. A sheep when my kingdom needed me to act like a king.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

77. “You should talk to someone. The jokes don’t help much, but talking does.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

78. “I wipe the crumbs from my lips, desperate to hide the fact that I’ve eaten my way through half the festival.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

79. “The only difference between them and criminals is the uniforms they wear.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

80. “Her spirit seems to hover around me, crashing with th force of the turbulent sea.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

81. “Her advice lifts a weight from my shoulders that I should have never tried to carry at all.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

82. “I won’t let your ignorance silence my pain.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

83. “She would take all the shattered pieces of my heart and find a way to make them whole again.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

84. “I can’t go back to that world. I won’t survive that pain.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

85. “Don’t... ′ His eyes fall closed. ‘Be sad.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

86. “I teach the way of the staff to any girl who wants to learn, because in this world there will always be men who wish you harm.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

87. “And a piece of advice, little prince. Don’t put your life in my hands unless you want that life to end.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

88. “Each symbol takes me back to another lesson, another story, another wisdom. I look at Mama, waiting. Is this a gift or what she’ll use to beat me?”

— Tomi Adeyemi

89. “He’ll do the right thing when it’s easy, but when it matters most, he’ll stab you in the back. You can’t trust him, Amari. All he leaves us with are scars.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

90. “You carry all of us in your heart. We shall live in every breath you take. Every incantation you speak. You are the children of the gods. You shall never be alone.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

91. “When your opponent has no honor, you must fight in different ways, smarter ways.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

92. “Reality and logic don’t matter to her. She needs this so badly, failure isn’t even in the realm of possibilities.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

93. “Count to ten,” I whisper to myself. “Count. To. Ten.” Becuase when I finish counting, this horror shall end.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

94. “They need to know we can hit them back. If they burn our homes, we burn theirs, too.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

95. “Mama used to say that in the beginning, white hair was a sign of the powers of heaven and earth. It held beauty and virtue and love, it meant we were blessed by the gods above.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

96. “I didn’t know it was possible to fit so perfectly inside someone else’s arms.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

97. “He shrugs and brushes non-existent dirt off his shoulders.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

98. “Sadness swells inside me as I close my eyes and picture her face. Just a brief thought of her is almost enough to take me away from the hell of this desert. If she were here, she’d be smiling, laughing at the grains of sand that got stuck between her teeth. She’d find beauty in all of this. Binta found the beauty in everything.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

99. “Despite all the pain he caused, I didn’t know how to breathe without my brother in this world.”

— Tomi Adeyemi

100. “But in Binta’s hands, magic is mesmerizing, a wonder like no other. The joy of the summer sun melting into twilight. The very essence and breath of –.”

— Tomi Adeyemi