Delirium Quotes

“But that isn’t it, exactly. The condemner and the condemned. The executioner; the blade; the last-minute reprieve; the gasping breath and the rolling sky above you and the thank you, thank you, thank you, God. Love: It will kill you and save you, both.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection

“One day you have a place and a path. The next day you’re lost in a wilderness.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection

“And God created the whole universe from an atom no bigger than a thought. Grace’s life fell apart because of a single word: sympathizer. My world exploded because of a different word: suicide. Correction: That was the first time my world exploded. The second time my world exploded, it was also because of a word. A word that worked its way out of my throat and danced onto and out of my lips before I could think about it, or stop it. The question was: Will you meet me tomorrow? And the word was: Yes.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection

“A curious ache throbs in the back of my throat, even though of course this is how things are: Everything ends, people move on, they don’t look back. It’s how they should be.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection

“Is Lena getting married today?” Jenny asks my aunt. Her voice has always reminded me of bees droning flatly in the heat. “Don’t be stupid,” my aunt says, but without irritation. “You know she can’t marry until she’s cured.” I take my towel from the bin and straighten up. That word—marry—makes my mouth go dry. Everyone marries as soon as they are done with their education. It’s the way things are. “Marriage is Order and Stability, the mark of a Healthy society.” (See The Book of Shhh, “Fundamentals of Society,” p. 114). But the thought of it still makes my heart flutter frantically, like an insect behind glass. I’ve never touched a boy, of course—physical contact between uncureds of opposite sex is forbidden. Honestly, I’ve never even talked to a boy for longer than five minutes, unless you count my cousins and uncle and Andrew Marcus, who helps my uncle at the Stop-N-Save and is always picking his nose and wiping his snot on the underside of the canned vegetables. And if I don’t pass my boards—please God, please God, let me pass them—I’ll have my wedding as soon as I’m cured, in less than three months. Which means I’ll have my wedding night.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection

“Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. That’s bad enough. The Book of Shhh also tells stories of those who died because of love lost or never found, which is what terrifies me the most. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium: The Complete Collection