1. “It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart”

One of my favorite quotes, this quote alone explains human nature. A very insightful quote from John Knowles, and a very good theory on human nature. I chose it because these are my exact thoughts on wars that could have prevented by giving peace a chance. All you need is love after all.

2.“Everything has to evolve or else it perishes.”

This is a very Darwinistic quote from Knowles, it’s survival of the fittest. It’s dog eat dog world, and if you don’t move along with the world, you get left behind to gather dust. I chose it because in the world we live in today, you can’t afford to be held back by the little things that prevent you from becoming a better person. You have to change with the world.

3. “Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.”

One of the truest things ever said by man. Your past, or your present plays a big part of your future, and if your past/present was affected by a big war, then your entire future is trying to recover from that war.

4.“Never say you are five feet nine when you are five feet eight and a half”.  Never say something you’re not. Finny was a realistic kid, not much of an optimist. But this quote is true, just don’t pretend you’re something you’re not. You aren’t lying to anybody but yourself, and that’s something Finny tried to explain to Gene.

5.“You want to break something else in me! Is that why you’re here?”

Finny obviously is not referring to an actual body part, he’s referring to his heart being broken. The trust he had in Gene, smashed into pieces. But the book did a good job of saying that you could break Finny’s leg, but you can’t break his spirit. I chose this quote because it pretty much described Finny’s feelings, and that’s something you didn’t see too much of from him.

6.“He and his crowd are responsible for it! And we’re going to fight it!”

Brinker, Mr. Army ranger says this. He’s obviously not bought into the war, and like a normal young teen, he passes the blame to the generation before him. But the blame doesn’t fall to the generation before him, it falls to human kind itself. This quote is among my favorites because you see their thoughts on the war. Most of them are so Gung-Ho and that the don’t even know what they’re fighting for. Brinker knows though, and so does Gene.

7. “If you break the rules, then the rules broke you.”

Gene “Pannies-inna-wad” Forrester 1944. Among his famous sayings, this is the best one he could have thought of. Gene is all about the rules, all about being the rules, all about following the rules. But what he says is true, if you break the rules, obviously the temptation was too great, and you caved in. This is a moral, a characteristic of life. You can’t go around breaking the rules, you have to follow them, without them, you are a criminal. Gene’s next should have been “Don’t drop the soap.” It would be something that would come out of his mouth.

8.“I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.”

He killed his real enemy. And much to the reader’s dismay, his real enemy wasn’t Brinker, it wasn’t Leper, it wasn’t Quackenbush, it wasn’t Chett Douglass. Heck, it wasn’t even Phineas. His real enemy was himself. Although the killing of himself did come with Finny’s death, Finny wasn’t an enemy to anybody. Conflict resolved, Gene finds peace with himself.

9. “I did not cry then or ever about Finny….I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case”

The killing of himself. He didn’t cry because he was heartless, he didn’t cry because he wasn’t friends with Finny. The boy cried because what enabled him to cry died away with Finny. He had nothing to cry about, and that’s why he didn’t cry. He who was Gene became Finny and died Ginny. (Gene+Finny=Ginny) This quote was certainly a powerful one, it was deep. Almost made me cry.

10.”I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas”

The story revolved around Gene’s transformation, and why not, it’s a big deal to Gene himself. The problem is what it took for him to understand what Finny was doing in his life. He was there for a lot more than just to push Gene to be something else. This quote is one of the top favorites, because I was seeing myself come together. My Gene side and my Phineas side smashing into one big life form.