Bottom line? As much as you wanted someone to change and believed they could, they were in control of their life. Not you. And you could throw yourself against the wall of their choices until you were black-and-blue and dizzy as hell, but unless they decided to take a different road, the outcome wasn’t going to be what you wanted.

— J.R. Ward

Butch tightened his grip on his cell and wished there were an app that let you reach through a phone and bitch slap someone.

— J.R. Ward

But that was life: Nobody got a guided tour to their own theme park. You had to hop on the rides as they presented themselves, never knowing whether you would like the one you were in line for...or if the bastard was going to make you throw up your corn dog and your cotton candy all over the place.

— J.R. Ward

But then, gifts are like beauty, are they not. It is in the eye of the recipient that they find their seat, not in the hand of the giver.

— J.R. Ward

Caregivers had to take care of themselves, and part of that meant having a life beyond whatever illness had put them in their Cole.

— J.R. Ward

Destiny was a machine built over time, each choice that you made in life adding another gear, another conveyor belt, another assemblyman. Where you ended up was the product that was spit out at the end—and there was no going back for a redo. You couldn take a peek at what would manufactured and decide, Oh, wait, I wanted to make sewing machines instead of machine guns; let me go back to the beginning and start again. One shot. That was all you got.

— J.R. Ward

Falling into ruin was a bit like falling in love: Both descents stripped you bare and left you as you were at your core. And both endings are equally painful.

— J.R. Ward

Fear of change was a weakness

— J.R. Ward

From out of nowhere, Jury felt an overwhelming tide of guilt, like someone had popped the lid off all his deepest concerns and his fears for the future of the race. He had to respond to it, couldn't bear the pressure. Riding the wave, he found himself saying in a rush, "We live and die for our kind. The species is our firsthand only concern. We fight every night and count the jars of threshers we kill. Stealth is the way we protect the civilians. The less they know about us, the safer they are. That is why we disappeared.

— J.R. Ward

Funny thing about glass. When you broke the shit up, it got pissed and a bit back.

— J.R. Ward