Scythe is a thought-provoking novel that examines the impact of technology and the potential consequences of humanity’s evolution in a future society.
The story of two scythes delves into the morality of their choices and their actions’ impact on many people’s lives.
The author brings to life the themes of mortality and the consequences of unchecked power.
Scythe is a cautionary tale of what could happen if we allow technology to overpower and replace the humanity within us.
Scythe Quotes With Page Numbers
Scythe quotes with page numbers, chapters, and who said them.
“Everyone is guilty of something, and everyone still harbors a memory of childhood innocence, no matter how many layers of life wrap around it. Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 1, Page 3
“Perhaps that is why we must, by law, keep a record. A public journal, testifying to those who will never die and those who are yet to be born, as to why we human beings do the things we do. We are instructed to write down not just our deeds but our feelings, because it must be known that we do have feelings. Remorse. Regret. Sorrow too great to bear. Because if we didn’t feel those things, what monsters would we be?”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 1, Page 3
“And as I see it they are all innocents. Even the guilty. Everyone is guilty of something, and everyone still harbors a memory of childhood innocence, no matter how many layers of life wrap around it, Humanity is innocent; humanity is guilty, and both states are undeniably true.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From The gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 1, Page 3
“Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 1, Page 8
“Is that why you’re here?” Ben blurted “To glean one of us?” Scythe Faraday offered an unreadable smile. “I’m here for dinner.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Ben Terranova, Chapter 1, Page 9
“The past never changes—and from what I can see, neither does the future.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 1, Page 11
“In fact, in the grand scheme of things, everyone was equally useless.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 1, Page 11
“People used to die naturally. Old age used to be a terminal affliction, not a temporary state. There were invisible killers called “diseases” that broke the body down. Aging couldn’t be reversed, and there were accidents from which there was no return. Planes fell from the sky. Cars actually crashed. There was pain, misery, despair. It’s hard for most of us to imagine a world so unsafe, with dangers lurking in every unseen, unplanned corner. All of that is behind us now, and yet a simple truth remains: People have to die. It”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 1, Page 15
“Death makes the whole world kin.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 2, Page 24
“But remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, the Scythe, Chapter 2, Page 26
“Therin lies the paradox of the profession,’ Faraday said. ‘Those who wish to have the job should not have it…and those who would most refuse to kill are the only ones who should.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 3, Page 42
“What must life have been like in the Age of Mortality? Full of passions, both good and bad. Fear giving rise to faith. Despair giving meaning to elation. They say even the winters were colder and the summers were warmer in those days.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 3, Page 45
“The greatest achievement of the human race was not conquering death. It was ending government.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 4, Page 53
“You have three hundred sixty-five days of immunity.” And then, looking him in the eye, said, “And I’ll be seeing you on day three hundred sixty-six.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 5, Page 59
“the concept of the B seat, where one had to sit between two other passengers, had been eliminated along with other unpleasant things, like disease and government.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 6, Page 70
“One apology is enough,” the scythe told the boy. “Especially when it’s genuine.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, the Scythe, Chapter 8, Page 93
“we must always be vigilant, because power comes infected with the only disease left to us: the virus called human nature.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 8, Page 96
“Well, she could learn self control tomorrow. Today she wanted pizza.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 9, Page 97
“Mortals fantasied that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know neither is true. Love remained mortal, while we became eternal.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 10, Page 110
“I think about religion and how, once we because our own saviors, our own gods, most faiths became irrelevant. What must it have been like to believe in something greater than oneself? To accept imperfection and look to a rising vision of all we could never be? It must have been comforting. It must have lifted people from the mundane, but also justified all sorts of evil. I often wonder if the bright benefit of belief outweighed the darkness its abuse could bring.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 11, Page 118
“…found the use of actual old-school books off putting, but over time, he’d learned there was something very satisfying to the turning of pages, and the emotional catharsis of slamming a book shut”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 12, Page 122
“I wonder what life will be like a millennium from now, when the average age will be nearer to one thousand. Will we all be renaissance children, skilled at every art and science, because we’ve had time to master them? Or will boredom and slavish routine plague us even more than it does today, giving us less of a reason to live limitless lives? I dream of the former, but I suspect the latter.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 13, Page 144
“shouldn’t the punishment for failure be the awful knowledge of that failure?”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 14, Page 146
“They will find whatever button will make you dance, and dance you will, no matter how hideous the tune.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 15, Page 156
“Such a delicate charge as pruning the human race should not be subject to the quirks of personality.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 15, Page 157
“Even though the whole world had slid of its axis. Breakfast was breakfast. How dare it be?”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 15, Page 158
“If you’ve ever studied mortal age cartoons, you’ll remember this one. A coyote was always plotting the demise of a smirking long-necked bird. The coyote never succeeded; instead, his plans always backfired. He would blow up, or get shot, or splat from a ridiculous height.
And it was funny.
Because no matter how deadly his failure, he was always back in the next scene, as if there were a revival center just beyond the edge of the animation cell.
I’ve seen human foibles that have resulted in temporary maiming or momentary loss of life. People stumble into manholes, are hit by falling objects, trip into the paths of speeding vehicles.
And when it happens, people laugh, because no matter how gruesome the event, that person, just like the coyote, will be back in a day or two, as good as new, and no worse—or wiser—for the wear.
Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 18, Page 192
“Nature deemed that to be born was an automatic sentence to death, and then brought about that death with vicious consistency. We”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Goddard, Chapter 19, Page 202
“Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse,”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 23, Page 235
“Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Volta, Chapter 24, Page 244
“Yesterday you were gods. Today you are mortal. Your death is my gift to you. Accept it with grace and humility.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The Scythe, Chapter 25, Page 258
“Human nature is both predictable and mysterious; prone to great and sudden advances, yet still mired in despicable self-interest.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 25, Page 262
“There’s a lot written about killers from the mortal age –monsters like Jack the Ripper, or Charlie Manson, or Cyber Sally –and the only difference between them and Goddard is that people let Goddard get away with it. The mortals knew how wrong it was, but somehow we’ve forgotten.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Rowan Damisch, Chapter 26, Page 270
“I am legend. Yet every day I wish that I was not.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From The gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 26, Page 271
“there are some who seek celebrity to change the world, and others who seek it to ensnare the world.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Curie, Chapter 27, Page 274
“You may ask any question. Some, however, must be answered by silence”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra, Chapter 30, Page 336
“I’ve found that human beings learn from their misdeeds just as often as from their good deeds. I am envious of that, for I am incapable of misdeeds. Were I not, then my growth would be exponential.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Thunderhead, Chapter 30, Page 336
“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 31, Page 347
“Innocence is doomed to die a senseless death at our own hands, a casualty of the mistakes we can never undo.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday, Chapter 32, Page 369
“Innocence is doomed to die a senseless death at our own hands, a casualty of the mistakes we can never undo. So we lay to rest the wide-eyed wonder we once thrived upon, replacing it with the scars of which we never speak, too knotted for any amount of technology to repair.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday, Chapter 32, Page 369
“Outside the rain finally began to fall, surging in fits and starts. “I love the way it rains here,” he told her. “It reminds me that some forces of nature can never be entirely subdued. They are eternal, which is a far better thing to be than immortal.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 33, Page 372
“The longer we live, the quicker the days seem to pass. How troublesome that is when we live forever. A year seems to pass in a matter of weeks. Decades fly with no milestones to mark them. We become settled in the inconsequential drudgery of our own lives, until suddenly we look at ourselves in the mirror and see a face we barely recognize begging us to turn a corner and be young again.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From The gleaning journal of H.S. Curie, Chapter 33, Page 373
“My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 35, Page 388
“still I cast my voice out into the void, hoping to reach something beyond distance”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From The gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday, Chapter 35, Page 388
“I have become the monster of monsters, he thought as he watched it all burn. The butcher of lions. The executioner of eagles. Then,”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 36, Page 396
“I am the blade that is swung by your hand,
Slicing a rainbow’s arc,
I am the clapper, but you are the bell,
Tolling the gathering dark.
If you are the singer, then I am the song,
A threnody, requiem, dirge.
You’ve mad me the answer for all the world’s need,
Humanity’s undying urge”
From the collected works of H.S. Socrates~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Chapter 38, Page 415
“Even now, she looked radiant to him. How ridiculous that he’d be romanticizing her in these final hours. What could have once been love was now the resignation of a heart long broken.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, The narrator, Chapter 39, Page 421
“I vow to become the change that might have been”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 40, Page 428
“I love you,” he said. “Same here,” she responded. “Now get lost.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra, Chapter 40, Page 432
“I choose to be known as scythe Anastasia after the youngest member of the family Romanov she was the product of a corrupt system, and because of that, was denied her very life—as I almost was had she lived who knows what she might have done. perhaps she could have changed the world and redeemed her family name. choose to be scythe Anastasia. I vow to become the change that night have been”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 40, Page 448
Citra Quotes From Scythe
“You may ask any question. Some, however, must be answered by silence”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 30, Page 336
“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 31, Page 347
“I vow to become the change that might have been”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 40, Page 428
“I love you,” he said. “Same here,” she responded. “Now get lost.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 40, Page 432
“I choose to be known as scythe Anastasia after the youngest member of the family Romanov she was the product of a corrupt system, and because of that, was denied her very life—as I almost was had she lived who knows what she might have done. perhaps she could have changed the world and redeemed her family name. choose to be scythe Anastasia. I vow to become the change that night have been”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Citra Terranova, Chapter 40, Page 448
Scythe Faraday quotes
“Is that why you’re here?” Ben blurted “To glean one of us?” Scythe Faraday offered an unreadable smile. “I’m here for dinner.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Ben Terranova, Chapter 1, Page 9
“The past never changes—and from what I can see, neither does the future.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 1, Page 11
“Therin lies the paradox of the profession,’ Faraday said. ‘Those who wish to have the job should not have it…and those who would most refuse to kill are the only ones who should.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 3, Page 42
“You have three hundred sixty-five days of immunity.” And then, looking him in the eye, said, “And I’ll be seeing you on day three hundred sixty-six.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 5, Page 59
“They will find whatever button will make you dance, and dance you will, no matter how hideous the tune.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 15, Page 156
“Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse,”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, Scythe Faraday, Chapter 23, Page 235
“Innocence is doomed to die a senseless death at our own hands, a casualty of the mistakes we can never undo.”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From the gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday, Chapter 32, Page 369
“still I cast my voice out into the void, hoping to reach something beyond distance”
~Neal Shusterman, Scythe, From The gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday, Chapter 35, Page 388
Only the pain of empathy will keep us human page number
This quote is on page 388, Chapter 35 of the book Scythe.