110+ Best Shatter Me Quotes (with Commentary)

In the world of young adult literature, Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series is remarkable for its poetic prose and emotional depth. The story, centered on Juliette—a girl with a fatal touch—resonates with themes of empowerment, identity, and transformation.

The narrative is especially memorable for its rich, provocative quotations that capture the toils and victories of Juliette as she changes from a scared prisoner to a strong person.

These selections of quotes from the Shatter Me series not only brings out the pivotal moments of Juliette’s journey but also offers insights into Mafi’s distinctive style and the emotional landscape of her characters.

Top Shatter Me Quotes

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The moon is a loyal companion.” – Tahereh Mafi

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am nothing but novocaine. I am numb, a world of nothing, all feeling and emotion gone forever. I am a whisper that never was.” – Tahereh Mafi

“You can’t touch me,” I whisper. I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him. He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him. Please touch me, is what I want to tell him.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Hope is a pocket of possibility. I’m holding it in my hand.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures. No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.” – Tahereh Mafi

Also Read: Unsupportive Family Quotes (with Commentary)

Shatter Me Quotes on Freedom and Oppression

“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Oppression will only survive the silence of the oppressed.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The greatest shackles we bear in this life are those forged by our own fear.” – Tahereh Mafi

“In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” – Tahereh Mafi

“A heart filled with love is like a phoenix that no cage can imprison.” – Tahereh Mafi

“To stand up for someone was to stitch your fate into the lining of theirs.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Breaking free from the chains of oppression requires courage you summon from within.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Oppression hides behind walls of silence, walls that must be shattered.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The fight for freedom is never about the oppressor; it is about the oppressed regaining their right to breathe.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Resilience and Strength

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” – Tahereh Mafi

“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – Tahereh Mafi

“No rain, no flowers.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Falling down is an accident, staying down is a choice.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Rise like the hero you were born to be, or die the slave you think you are.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” – Tahereh Mafi

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Betrayal and Forgiveness

“Forgiving isn’t something you do for someone else. It’s something you do for yourself. It’s saying, ‘You’re not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.'” – Tahereh Mafi

“The hardest thing about the road not taken is that you never know where it might have led.” – Tahereh Mafi

“There is nothing so terrible as a story untold.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Betrayal hollows you out but fills you with a cold, hard light. The glow is frightening but still illuminating.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I want to forgive but I remember.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Betrayal is the deepest wound. Forgiveness is the healing balm.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The poison leaves bit by bit, not all at once. Be patient. You are healing.” – Tahereh Mafi

“It’s not the load that breaks you, it’s the way you carry it.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Sometimes you forgive people simply because you still want them in your life.” – Tahereh Mafi

“A heart filled with anger has no room for love.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on War and Peace

“War is not about who’s right, it’s about who’s left.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony.” – Tahereh Mafi

“In the aftermath, we are because they were. In the end, we are their legacies.” – Tahereh Mafi

“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – Tahereh Mafi

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.” – Tahereh Mafi

“It’s the moments of peace that make the war worth fighting.” – Tahereh Mafi

“You can’t fight a war against yourself and expect to win.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The only peace that can hold is one that we make for ourselves.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Every war has two losers.” – Tahereh Mafi

“No one wins in war. Some just lose more than others.” – Tahereh Mafi

“But the most terrifying thing of all is the fear of the unknown.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Loneliness is a bitter, wretched companion.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Love and Passion

“I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. I want to be that kind of friend.” – Tahereh Mafi

“It’s the kind of kiss that inspires stars to climb into the sky and light up the world.” – Tahereh Mafi

“And in his eyes I find a kind of peace, a calmness that quells the storm in my own. A quiet so deep I could drown in it and never want to come up for air.” – Tahereh Mafi

“He says it with a small smile the size of Jupiter.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Love is a lethal weapon, a deadly poison, a high-stakes game. Love will make you invincible and render you powerless.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am unraveling at the seams. My stitches are snagging and I’m starting to come apart, especially when he looks at me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“He is both the poison and the antidote.” – Tahereh Mafi

“You destroy me, Juliette. Your body kills me every night. Your soul slaughters me every second.” – Tahereh Mafi

“When he touches me, flames lick through my veins.” – Tahereh Mafi

“His lips, his hands, his skin, his touch, they’re all the antidote to everything. He’s the only real thing.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Identity and Self-Discovery

“Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am not afraid of my truth anymore and I will not omit pieces of me to make you comfortable.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I’ve been screaming for years and no one has ever heard me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am an unfinished book. Don’t judge me by my cover.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Maybe I was made this way for a reason. Maybe somebody will find that reason useful someday.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I can only be who I am.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I’m tired of trying to explain my soul to people who are only interested in the cover and not the story.” – Tahereh Mafi

“My eyes are filling fast with stars, as I surrender to who I’m becoming.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am a compilation of many years of fantasy and fiction, woven into something uniquely my own.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Fear and Courage

“Fear will learn to fear me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I’ve been locked up for 264 days. I have nothing left to fear.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I am no longer afraid of fear, and I will not let it rule me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“There are times when fear is not our enemy. There are times when fear is our truest, sometimes only, friend.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Courage does not always roar. Valor does not always shine.” – Tahereh Mafi

“To stand in front of a person who fears you and tell them you fear them too, is to find a way to freedom.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The notion of fear is the greatest failure of our species.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I find power in the fear I’ve swallowed.” – Tahereh Mafi

“My fear is my substance, and I am fueled by it.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Power and Control

“The people who have the power to change things are the ones who believe they can.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Power isn’t control at all—power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Control is not real, and pretending to have power over the uncontrollable is not the same as being powerful.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I’ve come to realize that power is a really simple thing. It’s just as easy to feel powerful as it is to feel powerless.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The greatest power requires the lightest touch.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Sometimes wielding power is just a matter of learning the right lever to pull.” – Tahereh Mafi

“My power does not come from breaking others but from building them up.” – Tahereh Mafi

“It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Control can sometimes be an illusion. But sometimes you need illusion to gain control.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The worst kind of power is the one that comes from fear.” – Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me Quotes on Relationships and Trust

“The possibility of all those people seeing me, accepting me, terrifies me.” – Tahereh Mafi

“But I’ve learned that deep trust is not formed at a distance. Real understanding is built face to face.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Trust is a fragile thing. It requires allowing others to see the secrets you are ashamed of.” – Tahereh Mafi

“The first step toward change is acceptance. The second is trust.” – Tahereh Mafi

“You can’t find trust in well-lit rooms and wide open spaces. It grows in the dark and comes when called.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Our relationship isn’t easy. It’s a fight for power, a battle for control.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it’s broken, but you can still see the crack in that mother fucker’s reflection.” – Tahereh Mafi

“It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it.” – Tahereh Mafi

“I learned that a relationship isn’t about dominance or submission. It’s about balance and respect.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Trust is not about having nothing to hide, but about having your vulnerability respected.” – Tahereh Mafi