130+ Best Quotes from Young Adult Books You Must Read

There are iconic lines from YA books we’re all familiar with in many categories such as relationships, comedy, bravery, self-acceptance, and more… Beautiful quotes from young adult literature will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to at any age.

If you’re searching for best quotes from books that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of famous quotes about reading, quotes from greatest author and inspiring Children’s book quotes.

Quotes from Young Adult Literature

If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky. — That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton

I think you can sort of slip out of your life and it can be hard to find a way back in. ― I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we’re quoting. ― An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

You could rattle the stars. You could do anything, if you only dared. And deep down, you know it too, and that’s what scares you the most. ― Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk. — They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

That’s the thing about pain. It demands to be felt. ― The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life. ― Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Because sometimes chance and circumstance can seem like the most appalling injustice, but we just have to adapt. That’s all we can do. ― The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

People really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows. And maybe it’s a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other. — Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside. ― Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

I’m done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed. — It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

I can’t seem to be a pessimist long enough to overlook the possibility of things being overwhelmingly good. ― Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people—to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it’s the effect or vice versa. — Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Things are rough all over. ― The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

We accept the love we think we deserve. — The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I think that maybe forgiveness is like change—it comes in small steps. — The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite. ― The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren’t all that different. ― Divergent by Veronica Roth

Because Margo knows the secret of leaving, the secret I have only just now learned; leaving feels good and pure only when you leave something important, something that mattered to you. Pulling life out by the roots. But you can’t do that until your life has grown roots. ― Paper Towns by John Green

Even in its first faint traces, love could alter a landscape. It wrote unimagined stories and made the most beautiful, forbidding places. — Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

There are so many ways to be brave in this world. ― Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair. ― Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love. ― Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed. — This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

To make a thing as simple as an apple pie, you have to create the whole wide world. ― The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Why is straight the default? Everyone should have to declare one way or another, and it shouldn’t be this big awkward thing whether you’re straight, gay, bi, or whatever. I’m just saying. ― Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it. ― Divergent by Veronica Roth

Sometimes, when people get treated as less than human, the best way to help them feel better is to simply treat them as human. Not as victims. Just you as you. — All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

When she jumped, she probably thought she’d fly. ― The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn’t seem broken at all. — Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections. ― Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time.You’d be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It’s the saddest thing I know. — Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark. ― Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Maybe there’s something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt because it matters. — Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something. ― Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Books are easily destroyed. But words will live as long as people can remember them. — Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. ― The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

But when someone is grieving, a genuine smile is a small victory in the big battle. — History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live. ― Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

It doesn’t matter how big the body, it’s what you do with it. — The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Spoiler Alert: Love is worth everything, everything. ― Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

But you cannot change what you are, only what you do. — The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Just because we’ve been … dealt a certain hand … it doesn’t mean that we can’t choose to rise above — to conquer the boundaries of a destiny that none of us wanted. ― Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system. — Legend by Marie Lu

We all bear scars … Mine just happen to be more visible than most. ― Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Some walks you have to take alone. ― Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

We who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither. — These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

You can never visit the same place twice. Each time, it’s a different story. By the very act of coming back, you wipe out what came before. ― The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic. — Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right. ― Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

We believe in the wrong things. That’s what frustrates me the most. Not the lack of belief, but the belief in the wrong things. You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We’re just so damn good at reading them wrong. ― Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn

The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe. — Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway. ― The One by Kiera Cass

Why would you be given wings if you weren’t meant to fly? ― The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

I feel like I need to speak out, because if no one speaks out, if no one says, this is me, this is what I believe in, and this is why I’m different, and this is why that’s okay, then what’s the point? What’s the point of living in this beautiful, great melting pot where everyone can dare be anything they want to be? — When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

I bet you could sometimes find all the secrets of the universe in someone’s hand. ― Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

It’s just that…I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It’s the universe’s way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It’s how life is. ― The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared. — The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

You need to be yourself, but you also shouldn’t feel like you have to fight everyone, even yourself, to be it. ― Unlit Star by Lindy Zart

The universe is bigger than anything that can fit into your mind. ― Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Making a decision isn’t about knowing every potential consequence. It’s about knowing what you want and chasing a path that takes you in that direction — Huntress by Malinda Lo

Grief and love are conjoined, you don’t get one without the other. ― The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I try to think about how it all works. At school dances, I sit in the background, and I tap my toe, and I wonder how many couples will dance to ‘their song.’ In the hallways, I see the girls wearing the guys’ jackets, and I think about the idea of property. And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are. ― The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The funny thing about armor is that it doesn’t just keep other people out. It keeps us in. We build it up around us, not realizing that we’re trapping ourselves. — The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

‘You could rattle the stars,’ she whispered. ‘You could do anything, if only you dared.’ ― Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Things were rough all over but it was better that way. That way, you could tell the other guy was human too. ― The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it. — Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

Dreams are hopeful because they exist as pure possibility. Unlike memories, which are fossils, long dead and buried deep. ― We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

What if evil doesn’t really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing to struggle against except our own limitations? The constant battle between our will, our desires, and our choices? ― Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along. — Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world. ― Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. ― Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be. — An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common. ― Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean. ― The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up — Divergent by Veronica Roth

Sometimes there’s beauty in the tough words. It’s all in how you read them. ― All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I can tell you that the end of a life is the sum of the love that was lived in it, that whatever you think you have sworn, being here at the end of Jem’s life is not what is important. It was being here for every other moment. ― Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

I’ve seen most of what there is to be afraid of in this world, and to tell you the truth, the worst of them are the ones that make you afraid in the light. The things that your eyes see plainly and can’t forget are worse than huddled black figures left to the imagination. Imagination has a poor memory; it slinks away and goes blurry. Eyes remember for much longer. —Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I wonder what it’s like to have that much power over a boy. I don’t think I’d want it; it’s a lot of responsibility to hold a person’s heart in your hands. ― To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. ― A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

We are, largely, who we remember ourselves to be. That’s why habits are so hard to break. If we know ourselves to be liars, we expect not to tell the truth. If we think of ourselves as honest, we try harder. — White Cat by Holly Black

Maybe who we are isn’t so much about what we do, but rather what we’re capable of when we least expect it ― My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable? — An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

It’s like being in love, discovering your best friend. ― Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

People never really died. They only went on to a better place, to wait a while for their loved ones to join them. And then once more they went back to the world, in the same way they had arrived the first time around. ― Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything. — Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us. ― Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Goodbye, I say, goodbye, as I disappear little by little into the middle of the middle of my own spectacular now. ― The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Time comes to us softly, slowly. It sits beside us for a while. Then, long before we are ready, it moves on. — If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race — that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. ― The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

But if I’m it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I’m going to let the story end this way…Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield. ― The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end. — UnWholly by Neal Schusterman

If my life is going to mean anything, then I have to live it myself. ― The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I think you gotta be who you want to be until you feel like you are whoever it is you’re trying to become. Sometimes half of doing something is pretending that you can. — Dumplin‘ by Julie Murphy

The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like clouds, and she would ring them out like the rain. ― The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Words are how others define us, but we can define ourselves any way we choose. — We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

I believe in happiness…I’m just not sure love will actually get you there. ― The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee

I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence. — I Believe In A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

Child, no one is ever ready for anything. I would never doom you to that. What sort of adventureless life would that be? ― Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Sometimes the best way to find out what you’re supposed to do is by doing the thing you’re not supposed to do. — Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Take care not to listen to anyone who tells you what you can and can’t be in life. — The Girl Who Could Silence The Wind by Meg Medina

We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. ― Looking for Alaksa by John Green

Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story. ― I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Do you ever think if people heard our conversations they’d lock us up? — Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don’t overlook. ― Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

What makes big boobs and perkiness so attractive to boys? I mean, really. Two round, mounds of fat and a fake smile. Yeah, winning attributes. — Oh My Goth by Gena Showalter

Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today’s tasks. — Ironside by Holly Black

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: We all want everything to be okay. We don’t even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough. ― Every Day by David Levithan

I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It’s so Hogwarts. Only mine doesn’t have cute boy wizards or magic candy or flying lessons. — Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are. ― Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Doubt everything at least once. What you decide to keep, you’ll be able to be confident of. And what you decide to ditch, you will replace with what your instincts tell you is true. ― After the End by Amy Plum

Don’t get stabbed. It makes everything awkward. — The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss. ― City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

She delighted in the smell of the ink, the rough feel of the paper between her fingers, the rustle of sweet pages, the shapes of letters before her eyes. — My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Just as a river by night shines with the reflected light of the moon, so too do you shine with the light of your family, your people, and your God. So, you are never far from home, never alone, wherever you go. ― Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

It was impossible to feel alone in a room full of favorite books. I had the sense that they knew me personally, that they’d read me cover to cover as I’d read them. — Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

I wanted a love thick with time, as inscrutable as if a lathe had carved it from night and as familiar as the marrow in by bones. ― The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

It’s amazing how the more you read, the less you know. — Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present. ― Looking for Alaska by John Green

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. — Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you. ― The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

When I read, I feel emotion all on my own. Emotion no living person is making me feel. — Pivot Point by Kasie West

The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us. — Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it. ― A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

No one with a book is ever alone, even in the darkest moments. — Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine

I know that the whole point—the only point—is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go. ― Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons. — Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

Hope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope can never be killed. ― Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

Our private tastes in books showed a hint of our secret selves. —The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma