Percy Jackson & the Olympians

"You're still my best friend." He grinned. "Except for Annabeth." "That's different." "Yeah," he agreed. "It sure is."

"So we call the Gods by their Greek names because that's their original form. But saying their Roman aspects are exactly the same-that's not true. In Rome, they became more warlike. They didn't mingle with mortals as much. They became harsher, more powerful-the Gods of an empire." "Like the dark side of the gods?" "Not exactly. They stood for discipline, honor, strength-"

"You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"

"I'm the son of Jupiter! I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion. I slew the Trojan sea monster, I toppled the black throne of Kronos and and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."

"He called us...what, demigods?" "Don't know what demi means, but I'm not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?"

"A street sign labeled the road to the main gate as VIA PRAETORIA. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, was labeled VIA PRINCIPALIS. Under those markers were hand-painted signs like BERKELEY 5 MILES; NEW ROME 1 MILE; OLD ROME 7280 MILES; HADES 2310 MILES (pointing straight down); RENO 208 MILES; and CERTAIN DEATH: YOU ARE HERE!"

"Until that morning, her brother Nico had been the most powerful demigod she knew. The others at Camp Jupiter saw him as a traveling oddball, about as harmless as the fauns. Hazel knew better. She hadn't grown up with Nico, hadn't even known him very long. But she knew Nico was more dangerous than Reyna, or Octavian, or maybe even Jason. Then she'd met Percy. At first, when she saw him stumbling up the highway with the old lady in his arms, Hazel had thought he might be a god in disguise. Even though he was beat up, dirty, and stooped with exhaustion, he'd had an aura of power."

"Pluto's cool. It's not his fault he runs the Underworld. He just got bad luck when the gods were dividing up the world, you know? Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto got the shaft."

"Banks can be robbed. Building can burn down. Strange things conspire when one tries to cheat fate."

"There! A prophecy. You can add it to your books, engrave it on your floor, whatever." "This says, 'Go to Alaska. Find Thanatos and free him. Come back by June twenty-fourth or die.'" "Yes. Is that not clear?" "Well, my lord... prophecies are usually unclear. They're wrapped in riddles. They rhyme, and..." "Yes?" "The prophecy is clear! A quest!"

"Oh, I'm strictly nonviolent. I can act in self-defense, but I won't be drawn into any more Olympian aggression, thank you very much. I've been reading about Buddhism. And Taoism. I haven't decided between them." "But... Aren't you a Greek goddess?" "Don't try to put me in a box, demigod! I'm not defined by my past."

""What are these guys?” he whispered."

"He's a monster, lord!" "He's a son of Poseidon. Just like... well, just like me." "No! Monster! Horse-eater! Not trusted!" "I'll give you sugar cubes at the end of the race." "Sugar cubes?" "Very big sugar cubes. And apples. Did I mention the apples?"

"Fair.. You'd be amazed how often I hear that word, Frank Zhang, and how meaningless it is. Is it fair that your life will burn so short and bright? Was it fair when I guided your mother to the Underworld? No. Not fair. And yet it was her time. There is no fairness in Death. If you free me, I will do my duty."

"Annabeth put her knee to Percy's chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat. She didn't care what the Romans thought. A white-hot lump of anger expanded in her chest-a tumor of worry and bitterness that she'd been carrying around since last autumn. "If you ever leave me again," she said, her eyes stinging, "I swear to all the gods-" Percy had the nerve to laugh. Suddenly the lump of heated emotions melted inside Annabeth. "Consider me warned," Percy said. "I missed you, too.""

"He had no idea where the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes came from. Ever since he'd met Annabeth at the Grand Canyon last winter, when she'd marched toward him with that Give me Percy Jackson or I'll kill you expression, Leo thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous."

"Your mom used to tell me this Chinese proverb. Eat bitter-" "Eat bitter, taste sweet. I hate that proverb." "But it's true. What do they call it these days-no pain, no gain? Same concept. You do the easy thing, the appealing thing, the peaceful thing, mostly it turns out sour in the end. But if you take the hard path-ah, that's how you reap the sweet rewards. Duty Sacrafice. They mean something."

"I told Tantalus to go chase a doughnut."

"“The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important." "It was probably important to her.”"

"Hermes gazed up at the stars. "My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it. It doesn't matter if they hate you, or embarrass you, or simply don't appreciate your genius for inventing the Internet--”"

"Everywhere we went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia."

""Before I could figure out how to apologize for being such an idiot, she tackled me with a hug, then pulled away just as quickly. "I'm glad you're not a guinea pig." "Me, too." I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt."

"What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch.. that really got to you, huh?" "My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris." "That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?" "No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse." "What could be worse than hummus?" "Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else... even the gods."

"Don't you ever feel like, what if the world realy is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework." "I'm listening." "I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did-that's why the fire is still burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?" "Um... no. Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare."

"I'm just a kid Chiron. What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?" "What good is one lousy hero? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War."

"Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum."

"Damn it, Jackson. Do you have any idea how hard Colchis bulls are to come by?"

""It's okay, Ms. Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blond hair was tucked into a ski cap and her gray eyes were the same color as the ocean. "We'll keep him out of trouble." Mom seemed to relax a little. She thinks Annabeth is the most levelheaded demigod ever to hit eighth grade. She's sure Annabeth often keeps me from getting killed. She's right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"“Hey, can I see that sword you were using?" I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it. "Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?" "Um, well, I don't actually write with it." "Are you really the son of Poseidon?" "Well, yeah." "Can you surf really well, then?" I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh. "Jeez, Nico," I said. "I've never really tried." He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)”"

"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo's hot." "He's the sun god," I said. "That's not what I meant."

"I don't have much time," my mom said. "Percy, whatever you decide, I love you. And I know you'll do what's best for Annabeth." "How can you be sure?" "Because she'd do the same for you."

"This is why I don't use mortals. They are unreliable." "They are weak-minded, easily bought, and violent. I love them."

""Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to me, but Grover looked concerned. "That's us," he said. "Those five nuts right there." "Which one is me?" I asked. "The little deformed one," Zoe suggested. "Oh, shut up.”"

"Well then, why are you on this quest?" "Artemis has been captured." "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!" "But she was chasing a monster. A really, really bad monster. We have to find it!" "Always some monster. But my dear Percy, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you. "Annabeth is in trouble." "Exactly!" "I have to help her"

"There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it.""

"I don't know," she admitted. "But thank you for rescuing me." "Hey, no big deal. We're friends." "You didn't believe I was dead?" "Never."

"I will not have a sea creature destroyed, if I can help it. And I can help it."

"In each case, your loved ones have been used to lure you into Kronos's traps. Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy. To save a friend, you would sacrafice the world."

""I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!" Annabeth smiled at me gratefully, which made me look away."

""You are okay?" he asked. "Not eaten by monsters?" "Not even a little bit." I showed him that I still had both arms and both legs, and Tyson clapped happily. "Yay!" he said. "Now we can eat peanut butter sandwiches and ride fish ponies! We can fight monsters and see Annabeth and make things go BOOM!" I hoped he didn't mean all at the same time, but I told him absolutely, we'd have a lot of fun this summer."

"I didn't think-. Well, I didn't think you liked heroes." "Because of that little spat I had with Hercules? Honestly, I get so much bad press because of one disagreement." "Didn't you try to kill him, like, a lot of times?" "Water under the bridge, my dear. Besides, he was one of my loving husband's children by another woman. My patience wore thin, I'll admit it."

"Percy, I was kidding myself. All that planning and reading, I don't have a clue where we're going." "You're doing great. Besides, we never know what we're doing. It always works out. Remember Circe's island?" "You made a cute guinea pig." "And Waterland, how you got us thrown off that ride?" "I got us thrown off? That was totally your fault!" "See? It'll be fine."

"She looked like she was ready for a fight. Her fists were balled, but I thought I heard a quiver in her voice. Suddenly I realized that despite her angry attitude, she was afraid of me. She probably thought I was going to fight her control of the river, and she was worried she would lose. The thought made me sad. I felt like a bully, a son of Poseidon throwing his weight around. I sat down on a tree stump. "Okay, you win.""

"New lesson class," I announced. "Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!"

"Be careful of love. It'll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong."

"It isn't easy being a brilliant inventor. Always alone. Always misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, they can't be fixed."

"You deal with mythological stuff for a few years, you learn that paradises are usually places where you get killed."

"Annabeth stood still as a statue. She could've said thank you. She could've promised to throw some barbeque on the brazier for Hera and forget the whole thing. But she clenched her jaw stubbornly. She looked just the way she had when she faced the Sphinx-like she wasn't going to accept an easy answer, even if it got her in serious trouble. I realized that was one of the things I liked best about Annabeth."

"My mother made a squeaking sound that might've been either "Yes" or "Help". Poseidon took it as a yes and came in. Paul was looking back and forth between us, trying to read our expressions. Finally he stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Paul Blofis." Poseidon raised an eyebrow and then shook his hand. "Blowfish, did you say?" "Ah, no. Blofis, actually." "Oh, I see," Poseidon said. "A shame. I quite like blowfish. I am Poseidon." "Poseidon? That's an interesting name." "Yes, I like it. I've gone by other names, but I do prefer Poseidon." "Like the god of the sea." "Very much like that, yes" "Well!" My mother interrupted. "Um, were so glad you could drop by. Paul, this is Percy's father." "Ah." Paul nodded, though he didn't look real pleased. "I see." Poseidon smiled at me. "There you are, my boy. And Tyson, hello, son!" "Daddy!" Tyson [shouted] […] Paul's jaw dropped. He stared at my mother. "Tyson is..." "Not mine," she promised. "It's a long story.""

"Dad, when I was in the maze, I met Antaeus. He said... well, he said he was your favorite son. He decorated his arena with skulls and-" "He dedicated them to me. And you are wondering how someone could do something so horrible in my name. Percy, lesser beings do many horrible things in the name of the gods. That does not mean we gods approve it. The way our sons and daughters act in our names... well it usually says more about them than it does about us. And you, Percy, are my favorite son."