Angie > Angie's Quotes

“It is estimated that Josef Stalin killed more than twenty million people during his reign of terror. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia lost more than a third of their population during the Soviet genocide. The deportations reached as far as Finland. To this day, many Russians deny they ever deported a single person. But most Baltic people harbor no grudge, resentment, or ill will. They are grateful to the Soviets who showed compassion. Their freedom is precious, and they are learning to live within it. For some, the liberties we have as American citizens came at the expense of people who lie in unmarked graves in Siberia. Like Joana for Lina, our freedom cost them theirs.

Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after 50 years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy - love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“But all of the survivors had one thing in common, and that was love. They survived through love. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Our sense of humor," said Mother, her eyes pooled with laughing tears. "They can't take that away from us, right?”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“A guilty conscience is not worth extra food.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Mother, why are you breaking your beautiful things?' I asked...

'Because I love them so much.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“We know us,” said Mother. “They’re wrong. And don’t ever allow them to convince you otherwise. Do you understand?”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“I remembered Papa talking about Stalin confiscating peasants' land, tools, and animals. He told them what crops they would produce and how much they would be paid. I thought it was ridiculous. How could Stalin simply take something that didn't belong to him, something that a farmer and his family had worked their whole lives for? "That's communism, Lina," Papa had said.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Was it harder to die, or harder to be the one who survived? I was sixteen, an orphan in Siberia, but I knew. It was the one thing I never questioned. I wanted to live. I wanted to see my brother grow up. I wanted to see Lithuania”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother’s was worth a pocket watch.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“A wrongdoing doesn't give you the right to do wrong. You know that.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren’t to benefit. We’d been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realized that if we boosted one another, maybe we’d get a little closer.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Hope, like oxygen, is what kept her going.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“My husband, Andrius, says that evil will rule until good men or women choose to act.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“You stand for what is right, Lina, without the expectation of gratitude or reward. Now, off to your homework.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Evil will rule until good men or women choose to act.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Krasivaya. It means beautiful, but with strength.r”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Krasivaya. It means beautiful, but with strength.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There’s love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the time, it just ends up being awkward. Does that make sense?”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“You stand for what is right, without the expectation of gratitude or reward.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Komorov thought he was torturing us. But we were escaping into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“But we escaped into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren't to benefit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of a friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy- love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“We'd be trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realize that if we boosted one another, maybe we'd get a little closer.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Did you ever wonder what a human life is worth?”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“We’d been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray