Natalie Grey > Quotes

“She had such a simple, happy outlook on life: gathering friends together was good, and worrying about the future was bad.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“Truly good people, in his opinion, were few and far between. When you found one, you hung onto them as long as you could.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“What Barnabas tells Gar in Sentinel about flaws is deeply true for him: sometimes it is our best qualities that lead us down the wrong path, and finding our way out of that tangle can be difficult.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“Why would you give me something if I’m not useful? Why would you keep me alive?” Barnabas paused. “Because the measure of a person isn’t how useful they are,” he said finally. “With me, people don’t earn their lives, they earn their deaths. You’ve spent your whole life trying to be nothing, but you found beauty even in that. What could you do if you weren’t always looking over your shoulder? I think you should get a chance to answer that question.” Shocked into silence, she said nothing, and he left her to sit in peace. He was halfway to the kitchen before he looked at a camera, frowning at Shinigami’s unusual silence.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“The more time he spent alive, the more he both enjoyed the world and found it a hopeless frustration. Bethany Anne’s assurance that most humans were confused most of the time did not help in the slightest. It simply made the world a more terrifying place.”
― Natalie Grey, Trials and Tribulations

“Humans were so stupid sometimes. Irina tried not to roll her eyes. “That’s why there are packs,” she explained. She shook her head, “You can’t do everything in life on your own. You can’t even do most things on your own. You need people to back you up.”
― Natalie Grey, Trials and Tribulations

“This was how places like the Yennai Corporation fell, he thought to himself. Their soldiers didn’t fight for them. They didn’t believe in their leaders. When it came to a battle of life or death, that lack of faith was fatal.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“He had never quite adhered to any religion on Earth, but he still found value in many ways of conceptualizing God and the world.”
― Natalie Grey, Justiciar

“looked around at the faces of the men who had stayed true to money over honor.”
― Natalie Grey, Trials and Tribulations

“there’s a very large overlap between honorable and stupid.”
― Natalie Grey, Reign with Axe and Shield

“Now, I’m not sure how familiar you are with basic morality, but it is considered very, very immoral to stand by while a sociopath abducts families, tortures them, and forces them to kill one another.” “But—” one of the men spluttered. “It was just a job!” another one insisted. “Wrong answer.” Tabitha shook her head at them, and then considered. “Of course, there wasn’t actually a right one.”
― Natalie Grey, Trials and Tribulations

“Why is everyone so sure that I should make this decision?” “There’s no way to get through life without making decisions,”
― Natalie Grey, Challenges

“But those who had been here for years had made the choice to stand by as their employer tortured hundreds, maybe thousands, and those who had just arrived had either made the choice to do the same or made the choice to protect Hugo without learning why someone would want to kill him. Willful ignorance was no better than willful blindness, and neither would be forgiven.”
― Natalie Grey, Trials and Tribulations

“Anytime there’s one less bastard out there ruining the universe, anytime there are people better off when you leave than when you get there, it’s worth it.” Her eyes started to glow, though she kept a rein on her temper. “There are a lot of assholes out there. It’s why I was the Queen Bitch, not Queen Everybody-Gets-a-Hug. Let it make you angry. Don’t. Ever. Let them win.” Barnabas reached out and clinked his glass with hers. “Anytime there are people better off,” he murmured. He nodded. “Someday”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“I guess they knew they’d make a very, very powerful enemy someday,” Barnabas said. He’d surmised the flow of Shinigami’s thoughts and was careful to steer the conversation free either of blame or absolution. All that mattered was taking their enemies down. They would suffer setbacks and defeats, Barnabas knew. He was not foolish enough to think that they would always come out ahead. Indeed, he had learned over the years that failure was absolutely necessary for the long run. Only with the taste of defeat would people strive to push the limits of what they could do, and only by pushing those limits could they hope to triumph when the stakes were high.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“You’ve met people before, right? They’re dumb.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“This is the Yennai Corporation,” Barnabas explained. “Anything that gets this big is subject to many forces. As an organization, it will begin to command loyalty beyond simply what its leaders ask for. It is essentially a living thing now. It has made itself integral to the economic, security, and political systems of this entire sector. People will instinctively defend it.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“certainty is very seductive. Extremism, for instance, takes hold even when there has been no chemical conditioning like there is in this case. “What does that mean?” Barnabas asked wearily. “He means that to be certain of your worldview is something people desire,” Gar said unexpectedly. “The world is uncertain, and people want it to not be. They’ll subscribe to ridiculous beliefs just so they can feel more secure.” “Precisely,” Gil said with a nod to Gar. “The Luvendi is quite correct. What makes this belief even more damaging is that it used…well, torture, to render the victim vulnerable before feeding them the information about who to obey.” Barnabas shook his head. “Those worldviews fall apart when they’re tested,” he said. “Not always, but they do.”
― Natalie Grey, The Vigilante Chronicles Omnibus

“subsistence living was often the norm. One learned to expect lean times and to jump at work when it was offered, and so people were especially vulnerable to those who, pretending to be reasonable, preyed upon the natural instinct to provide for one’s family. And those people, she had told him, were brutal. They controlled through unpredictable violence and fear, and left one choice: obey and be richly rewarded, or disobey and be killed painfully. No matter how much they might, on some level, realize that they could be in the line of fire at any time, people kept their heads down out of instinct. They told themselves that everyone did whatever they needed to do to survive. They told themselves that they and their families had to be their first priority. Even”
― Natalie Grey, Challenges