Flawed (Book Quotes)

Title: Flawed

Author: Cecelia Ahern

Type: Novel

Published: 2016

Chapters: 65

Characters: Celestine North, Art, Juniper, Judge Crevan or Bosco, Carrick Vane.

 

If you haven’t read the book Flawed by Cecelia Ahern yet, this may be a spoiler for you.

 

So,

Here are the quotes and dialogues I liked most from the novel,

 

Quotes:

 

“FLAWED; faulty, defective, imperfect, blemished, damaged, distorted, unsound, weak, deficient, incomplete, invalid. (Of a person) having a weakness in character.”

 

“I am a girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white. Remember this.”

 

“Never trust a man who sits, uninvited, at the head of the table in another man’s home.”

 

“When you see something, it can’t be unseen. When you hear a sound, it can never be unheard. I know, deep down, that this evening I have learned something that can never be unlearned. And the part of my world that is altered will never be the same.”

 

“Circles are regarded as a symbol of perfection. All the radii bear a ratio of one to one to each other, showing there are no partial differences between them. They are proved to be in a state of harmony. Geometric harmony.”

 

“And why have I never thought of these things before? Because I never cared, that’s why.”

 

“I want to stop thinking. I really do, but I can’t… he’s trying to bring me back to him, but I can’t go there. I’m caught in this thought, in this moment.”

 

“I will never be the same again… I will be as judged when I leave as I was when I walked in… it will never end.”

 

“My mind is far from clear, my focused plan now a blur in my mind. I don’t even know what the right thing is any more. Me, who is always so sure. My black and white is now fuzzy and grey.”

 

“The most interesting moments are not where something is proved but where a new concept is involved.”

 

“I’ve learned that to be courageous is to feel fear within, every step of the way. Courage does not take over; it fights and struggles through every word you say and every step you take. It’s a battle or a dance as to whether to let it pervade. It takes courage to overcome, but it takes extreme fear to be courageous.”

 

“When the lows are so immense, the victories are small. But they are there despite it. You just have to know them when you see them, little pockets of light and hope hidden away in the darkness.”

 

“The most painful moment in my life also became the moment I showed most strength and courage.”

 

“There are cracks that you can fall through. Harder for you, … but if you look for them, you can find them. They don’t win all the time. Be careful.”

 

“When I was a child, I always thought that to run away you had to physically get up and run, like children in films. A hateful shout, a slam of door, then run. I’ve learned that lots of people run away without even going anywhere… I’ve never known how to do it before. But now I do. I’m running and running and running in my mind, through endless nothing but feeling free.”

 

“I don’t know what it’s like when you’re older, but every teenager wants to be perfect. Nobody wants to stand out, at least I never did. And the people that do stand out, they’re just being themselves. Everybody wants to look like they know what they’re doing, when really most of the time nobody has a clue.”

 

“As long as I have friends who will support me and be friends with me for who I am, I can do this, I can live this life. It’s not what I wanted, it’s not what I planned for in my carefully thought out plans…but it’s the hand that I’ve been dealt, and I will make as much of it as much as I can… I can live this life. I can be happy.”

 

“In retaliation for what? … Is that all my fault, too? A scapegoat for society and now a scapegoat for everyone else who knows me. All their problems are all my fault. Nothing to do with their own decisions, their own mistakes, their own doing.”

 

“The reality is not what they imagined it would be. My scars are scars caused by pain. Pain in theory and pain in the flesh are two different things. I think it has had a sobering effect on them. This, oddly, gives me strength. I have gone through what they seem to fear. They have brought me here because they are attracted to their fears. They want to analyse it. Understand it. Rise above it. Laugh at it. But I have lived it. It is my tragedy that they fear. And that gives me strength.”

 

“Me as I used to be, happy, beaming, smiling, laughing, looking like there is nothing wrong in her world. But I know it’s not me, because I’m here. Barefoot, bleeding, bruised. Running for my life. Fighting for my life…”

 

“…but I don’t know why I’m bothering, because the last piece of hope and energy that I had for myself has been instantly drained from my heart, and I no longer care. My heart is empty; they can do what they like to me now.”

“…nothing’s broken.

…

No. if you don’t count my heart, my pride and my complete belief in humanity.”

 

“I actually do… I want everybody’s pity, because then I will know that everyone is human, instead of whatever it is everybody is now.”

 

“You are the bravest person I’ve ever met, and you’ve inspired me to find my own voice.”

 

“I’ve learned that people aren’t cruel. Most people aren’t anyway,… but people are strong on self-preservation. And if something doesn’t directly affect them, they don’t get involved. I should know; … Those who do get involved usually have an agenda.”

 

“Compassion and Logic: the perfect partnership.”

 

“I often think you’re cleverer than you let on, and other times I think you’re a child who has found herself in a situation that is so much bigger than she is, and has no idea what to do.”

 

“I will never forgive him. But it doesn’t mean I can stop myself from caring about him… I shouldn’t care about him and I should worry about him. But I do.”

 

“I don’t trust anyone any more.”

 

“You speak what they think, if you understand. You represent a voice that has been silenced for decades.”

 

“We can learn from this. It hurts us and it moves us, but we can take this with us and use it to spur us on to make change. Change doesn’t just happen. We all know that. We have to force it.”

 

“One of my favourite quotes is from Albert Einstein: ‘We cannot solve problems with the same thinking used when we created them.’.”

 

“You know [George Polya] said there are four principles to solving a problem. First, you have to understand the problem. After understanding it, you make a plan, they you carry out the plan, they you look back on your work. If this techniques fails, which, of course, it often does, Polya advised, if you can’t solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: you just have to find it.”

 

“But be careful; sometimes it’s best not to know, because even when you know, it makes no odds anyway. Ignorance is a bliss. Knowledge is often a responsibility nobody wants.”

 

“Of course you can; they just say that you may not.”

 

“I hug the walls, keep my chin down. I need to get out of here drama-free. I can’t afford extra attention. I feel like a rat scuttling along the gutter, getting under everybody’s feet, in everybody’s way. My eyes fill, and I let my tears fall, but nobody asks me if I’m okay, because nobody cares, which hurts even more.”

 

“Everything has been given a soul in advertising. Yet the soul is being taken from people. Humanizing objects, dehumanizing people.”

 

Dialogues:

 

“She is uncomfortable when anything is less than perfect; … it all makes her question people, distrust them.”

 

“I can’t be afraid of someone whose human side I see and know.”

 

“The flawed are regular citizens who have made moral or ethical mistakes.”

 

“They [flawed] are not imprisoned; they haven’t done anything illegal, but they have carried out acts that are seen as damaging to society. They still live among us, only ostracized, and under separate rules.”

 

“The trouble with being punctual is that there’s nobody there to see it.”

 

“Punctual is acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed. You’re not punctual; you’re ridiculously early.”

 

“It is a sound I have known my entire life, a sound you never want directed to you.”

 

“Not his family, not his home, not tonight.”

 

“… Despite everything else going on in the world, you are the one thing that makes sense to me. You are beautiful.”

 

“It was the most perfect moment in my life.

It was the last perfect moment in my life.”

 

“Something has been shaken, stirred within me. My feeling of security has been tested, and perhaps my trust… Oddly, I think it is with my own self.”

 

“What harm would it have done anyway to simply say hello? I’m angry with myself.”

 

“She has been Flawed for quite some time, and I wonder if this means she’s worse now, if Flawed get more Flawed with age or if the branding, the acknowledgement of it, stops it from spreading and growing.”

 

“For the first time I wonder what it’s like for the Flawed to live life in the same world as everybody else they love, but under different rules.”

 

“She senses that I am looking at her, and our eyes meet for a miniscule moment before I look away, heart pounding from having made contact. I hope no one has seen. I hope it doesn’t look like I’m on her side.”

 

“I am a logical person, and this does not seem logical to me.”

 

“Instead of fearing she will do something stupid, for once I am glad she and I feel the same.”

 

“Rules state that if anyone aids a Flawed, they will be imprisoned, but not in this case surely? Are we to watch him struggling right before us?”

 

“Does anybody hear the old man? Does nobody see him? I look around, flustered. All eyes are staring out of the window or on him in disgust, as if he’s about to infect us all with his flaws.”

 

“He has done something wrong, Celestine.

…

Like what? Something that’s completely legal in another country but that people are prosecuted for here anyway?”

 

“I like solutions. The problem was disturbing me, and fixing it just made sense. I’m not doing anything wrong; I’m not breaking any laws or rules. I’ve always been complimented on my timing, my perfection.”

 

“I notice a few faces turn to stare at me when I say that. I expect them to understand. I expect there to be no further conversation. I even expect the few who have overheard to step in and agree, make sense of the situation. But they don’t. They look confused, some even scared. One man looks amused. This is illogical.”

 

“Anyone who made the smallest error in judgment was immediately punished. These people were publicly ridiculed, held up as examples of failure and forced to resign. They were named and shamed. They weren’t criminals, but they made bad decisions. Society demanded… who would not make mistakes in the first place… no second chances, no sympathy, no explanations allowed nor required.”

 

“It was decided that any person who made any error of judgment was to be rooted out of society entirely. Hindsight would be a thing of the past. Everybody would always- always- look ahead before it was too late, no mistakes made.”

 

“No matter what you do, your Flawed title can never be removed. You hold it till death. You suffer the consequences of your one mistake for the rest of your life. Your punishment serves as a reminder to others to think before they act.”

 

“I was hoping for defense, for back-up, not for an attack, not for my own mother to agree with them and point the finger at me.”

 

“If he finds out that you feel you were right to do what you did, then he will brand you Flawed.”

 

“She says sternly, so coldly, so devoid of all the love that I know her to have, that I don’t recognize her, and that means I no longer recognize the world. They are my roots, my foundations, and they sit before me now uprooted and saying things I never thought they’d say.”

 

“But it’s like I’m not there; they’re talking about me like I’m not there.”

 

“I’m the poster girl. One side wants to use me to prove the Guild is biased; the Guild wants to use me to prove that it isn’t. The perfect girl to prove its power. It wants me to feed the fear.”

 

“They’re sweet, but they say ‘don’t mess with me’ too…Remember, in this world, image is everything.”

 

“Every single medium is going to use you for its own motivations-you remember that.”

 

“Everyone is ready and waiting to use you for their own good, just you remember that.”

 

“I think of the Flawed I pass every day, the people I can’t look in the eye, the people I take steps around to avoid even brushing against. Their scars as identifiers, their armbands, their limited possibilities, living in the society but everything they want being just out of reach… in the same world but not living in the same way. Do I want to be like them?”

 

“I must become imperfect to prove that I am perfect.”

 

“We are to be held up to the rest of the world as a mirror of their worst nightmares. Scapegoats for all that is wrong in their lives.”

 

“The things they are saying about me, how they are analyzing and dissecting my actions when I, who actually did these things, gave them much less thought. If I am who they say I am, which side am I to believe? I don’t think either of them knows me at all.”

 

“They’re playing tricks on you, you know that. It’s all mind games. It’s about power. Control. This society we live in.”

 

“I’d think twice about that if I were you. Prepare yourself. Nothing will go back to being exactly as it was before.”

 

“This isn’t who I am. I follow rules, I like logic, I solve problems. I don’t speak out of turn on things I know nothing about. I don’t want to stand out. I want to fit in. I don’t want to be a poster girl for anything.”

 

“The tide is changing, and whether you wear the branding of the Flawed or you walk out of here a free woman, you’ll never be the same girl you were. They’ll be watching you, all of them, and who would you prefer they watch? You or the girl you’re pretending to be?”

 

“The sound from the crowd is unbearable. I can’t make out anything anyone is saying, but if you could trap anger in a jar, this is what you would hear each time you twisted the lid.”

 

“To go against the grain in this circumstance is to go against myself. I have never been the type of person not to do what I believe. He’s telling me to follow my heart.”

 

“I appreciate everybody’s company, but I don’t speak. I am happy to be away from all the noise, away from the unwanted attention, without having to worry about every part of me being analyzed: my facial expressions, my reactions, how I sit, how I walk. I can just be.”

 

“I am not a motivator. I couldn’t lead anyone even if I tried. I just want to be normal. I want to fit in. I want to be with my friends I want to go home. I don’t want anybody to build me up as anything that I’m not.”

 

“I try to focus, but I can’t. I know why I’m here, and then I don’t know why I’m here. I understand and then I don’t. I think it’s fair, and then I don’t. I wish I’d never done what I’ve done, and then I’m glad I did. I want to scream, but I don’t.”

 

“He did this to me. Him. I feel nothing but disgust for him. I used to think that I couldn’t be afraid of someone so human, now I realize it is his humanity that scares me most, because despite having all those traits, having shared the moments we’ve shared, he could still do this to me. Now I find him terrifying. I see the evil in him.”

 

“At least I have one friend. I am exhausted. I am still. I am ready.”

 

“I am piled with painkillers, and I like it. They give me a woozy out-of-body experience that takes me away from reality, softens the blow.”

 

“It’s for the part of me I lost, the invisible part of me that I never knew was essential. The part I gave away to become anything.”

 

“No one can be discriminated against for having a relationship with a Flawed family member. They are not responsible for the actions of their loved ones, but still, people always find a way to get around that.”

 

“I want it because it’s what I should be having. I want it because I’ve been told I can’t. I wonder, again, where this part of me has sprung from. I was the girl who followed rules; I was on their side. I never questioned anything. Now I find myself on the wrong side of everything, questioning everything.”

 

“My home is a cocoon, where day-to-day of my reality is lived and dealt with, not caring what other people think. I need it to be like this so I can survive, so I can deal with my own reality before hearing other people’s twisted perceptions.”

 

“I didn’t trust her before, and I trust her even less now. If she was trying to put me in my place, on the back foot, then she has failed. It is she who has fallen back first, because I won’t make this easy for her.”

 

“I am a person, not a case.”

 

“It’s not important what’s being said about me. I don’t need to hear it. I can’t control it and I can’t change it.”

 

“They want to be in our heads. I will never let them in my head again.”

 

“I’m just completely zapped. They’ve taken all the goodness from me. I am just a scarred shell.”

 

“She is so pleased with herself, as if she’s caught me out in my great big master plan. She waits for me to break down, to cry, to confess. Instead, I throw my head back and laugh. She has given me an idea.”

 

“The tattoo [the Flawed brand] is there not because I believe there is something wrong with me. It’s there to remind me that our flaws are our strengths.”

 

“Children are not allowed to search for their biological parents. First, they’re taken away from their Flawed parents and locked up in an institution for eighteen years to ‘teach’ the Flawed out of them. As soon as they reach eighteen years of age, they are released. If they search for their parents, even so much as think about it, they’re branded Flawed. Loyalty to their own flesh and blood is seen as disloyalty to society.”

 

“I take a deep breath. I’m not finished. It would be logical to at least finish what I was saying before the inevitable happens.”

 

“It’s almost as if there is a second when everybody takes a moment to make a decision, to pick a side, to figure out who they really are. And then the riot begins.”