Dystopian Quotes

“I tuck caution into my pocket and hope I can reach for it if I need to.”
― Tahereh Mafi

“The structure was like an aquarium filled with air instead of water, and Dani and Zephyr were the “fish” inside, there for the enjoyment of the Water People, or for whatever other purpose their captors had in mind.”
― Steven Decker, The Balance of Time

“America…land of the slaves, home of the depraved.”
― P.D. Alleva, The Rose Vol. 1

“Someday all the wilds will be razed, and we will be left with a concrete landscape, a land of pretty houses and trim gardens and planned parks and forests, and a world that works as smoothly as a clock, neatly wound: a world of metal and gears, and people going tick-tick-tick to their deaths.”
― Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium

“There’s more under the moon tonight than just alien vampires…and they come with teeth.”
― P.D. Alleva, The Rose Vol. 1

“They wept for humanity, those two, not for themselves. They could not bear that this should be the end. Ere silence was completed their hearts were opened, and they knew what had been important on the earth. Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven. Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward. Truly the garment had seemed heavenly at first, shot with colours of culture, sewn with the threads of self-denial. And heavenly it had been so long as man could shed it at will and live by the essence that is his soul, and the essence, equally divine, that is his body. The sin against the body - it was for that they wept in chief; the centuries of wrong against the muscles and the nerves, and those five portals by which we can alone apprehend - glozing it over with talk of evolution, until the body was white pap, the home of ideas as colourless, last sloshy stirrings of a spirit that had grasped the stars. ”
― E.M. Forster

“Do you remember writing in your diary," he said, "that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“They filled our world with weapons aimed at foreheads and smiled as they shot 16 candles right through our future. They killed those strong enough to fight back and locked up the freaks who failed to live up to their utopian expectations.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

“I wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about a
lot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when people
take intractable positions on an issue, and stick to extreme sides,
sometimes the result is a compromise that is worse than either extreme. I
meant it as a wake up call to society -- and to point out that sometimes the
problem IS that we take sides on an issue, when a different sort of approach
is needed. It's also to pose questions about what it means to be alive.
Where does life begin, where does it end -- and point out that there is no
single answer to these questions. The problem is people who think there are
simple answers. People who see things as simple black-and-white
right-and-wrong are the type of people who will end up with a world like the
world in Unwind.”
― Neal Shusterman

“Odd names: Winter, Autumn—they almost sound as if someone just made them up.” —Dubb”
― Richard Due, The Moon Coin

“You won't find the tales I bear in any books . . . My tales are from the Moon Realm.” —Ebb Autumn”
― Richard Due, The Moon Coin

“If you see us among scores of women, will you look upon us?

We shall look upon you, Liberty 5-3000, if we see you among all the women of the earth.”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

“Friends are just enemies you don’t know enough about.”
― Jeremy Davies, Missing, Presumed Undead

“Your eyes are as a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers cringe. You walk, but our brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us away from you.”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

“She would rather remain silent, but her voice is no longer something to fear. It’s strong. Powerful. A weapon of emotions.”
― Laura Kreitzer, Burning Falls

“When the nurse leaves, Doctor Rose mouths, “Act like you’re in pain.” Then she mimics a painful expression in case Summer doesn’t understand. On the contrary, Summer’s an expert at interpreting body language and reading lips. It’s all thanks to her observant nature while enslaved on the Cosmos. Who else could tell that Peter’s discomfort is due to him wearing the same pair of underwear for a week straight? Ah, yes, she always knew when day six and seven approached. She watched the crew member with much amusement as he waddled, pulled wedgies, and scratched his bum relentlessly. Not that anyone else cared to know that little nugget of information.”
― Laura Kreitzer, Forsaken Harbor

“But—" yelped Twizbang, “Greydor will eat us!”
― Richard Due, The Moon Coin

“If that which we have found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men wish for save corruption? If this is the great evil of being alone, than what is good and what is evil?”
― Ayn Rand

“The bleached ceilings, walls, and floors gleam in perfection. Drained of color, wiped of contamination, forever untainted they exist; a cold reminder of my purity.”
― Celeste Simone, Oriana's Eyes

“I laughed under my breath, and it sounded bitter. “Listen to me. What am I talking about, worth it? Is any experience or bit of beauty worth the cost of my life? I know nothing but safety and self-preservation at all costs.”

“And yet,” he said softly, “you’re risking everything to help me.”
― Kate Avery Ellison

“It's the most threatening disease of all. It's called "other people”
― J.G. Ballard, Hello America

“Trust no one," said Sullivan, "especially Teachers.”
― A.J. Arias, Robbie Velez and The Key to Rocket City

“Maligned –powerfully-drawn characters acting out a disturbing view of our future.” -David Compton, New York Times Best-Selling author”
― Kathleen Papajohn

“The last reports from Las Vegas described the abandoned gambling capital sitting half-submerged in a lake of rain-lashed water, its wheels stilled, the dying lights of its hotels reflected in the meadows of the drowned desert, a violent mirror reflecting all the failure and humiliation of America.”
― J.G. Ballard, Hello America

“We all live in a dystopian society cherishing silently the evil within.”
― Vinod Varghese Antony

“This is the "only a madman" argument.
Whenever I hear it (and it's often trotted out in such debates), I remind myself that madmen really exist. Sometimes they achieve the highest levels of political power in modern industrial nations.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

“Days in the sun, such harmless fun, they remind my heart of you. But you crumbled away, now alone I will play, my heart crumbled away with you too.

Bundles of flowers, a bouquet towers, they remind my heart of you. But your soul flew away, how I wish it could stay, my heart flew away with you too.

Rows of stones, such beautiful bones, they remind my heart of you. But you rotted away, at the end of the day, my heart rots away for you too.”
― Rachel Nussbaum, We Rotted in the Bitterlands

“Eine Welt voller Schutt und Asche, und die einzig Überlebenden hatten keinen Lebenssinn.”
― Arden Skye, Crossroads -- March of Robots

“We’ve been born amid violence with blood-stained cribs that wrapped their skins around our bodies, suffocating us to the extent that none of us react to violence anymore.”
― Aaroosh Khan, Our Deadly Deceptions

“We are nothing but shattered mirrors reflecting the worst virtues that humans can have. We are nothing but liars and voids and vacant, hollow beings that do whatever they’re ordered to do.”
― Aaroosh Khan, Our Deadly Deceptions