Oct. 20, 2024, 4:45 p.m.
In the universe crafted by Rick Riordan, "The Heroes of Olympus" series opens a gateway to a world teeming with adventure, camaraderie, and timeless wisdom. Through the eyes of demigods and their epic quests, readers are introduced to phrases that resonate well beyond their mythical context. Whether it's a declaration of bravery, a snippet of humor, or a profound reflection, these quotes capture the essence of the characters and their unforgettable journeys. Join us as we delve into a collection of 58 memorable quotes that not only evoke nostalgia for the fans but also offer inspiration and insight for anyone embarking on their own heroic adventures.
1. “Maybe it’s the other way around,” Jason suggested. “Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that’s whenthey’re needed most.” - Rick Riordan
2. “Percy smiled. He knew the stakes were high. He knew this day could go horribly wrong. But he also knew that Annabeth was on that ship.If things went right, this would be the best day of his life.He threw one arm around Hazel and one arm around Frank."Come on," he said. "Let me introduce you to my other family.” - Rick Riordan
3. “Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!” - Rick Riordan
4. “Two hundred Romans, and no one’s got a pen? Never mind!" He slung his M16 onto his back and pulled out a hand grenade. There were many screaming Romans. Then the hand grenade morphed into a ballpoint pen, and Mars began to write. Frank looked at Percy with wide eyes. He mouthed: Can your sword do grenade form?Percy mouthed back, No. Shut up.” - Rick Riordan
5. “Part of their problem was Percy. He fought like a demon, whirling through the defender's ranks in a completely unorthodox style, rolling under their feet, slashing with his sword instead of stabbing like a Roman would, whacking campers with the flat of his blade, and generally causing mass panic.” - Rick Riordan
6. “Ella, just stay here. Stay safe.""Safe," Ella repeated. "Ella likes being safe. Safety in numbers. Safety deposit boxes. Ella will go with Tyson.""What?" Percy said. "Oh... fine, whatever. Just don't get hurt. And Mrs. O'Leary—""ROOOF.""How do you feel about pulling a chariot?” - Rick Riordan
7. “Bad pony-men! BOO!” - Rick Riordan
8. “Stand your ground!" Stheno yelled. "I've got free samples!” - Rick Riordan
9. “Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed.” - Rick Riordan
10. “It's okay,” he said. “We're together.” He didn't say you're okay, or we're alive. After all they'd been through over the last year, he knew that the most important thing was that they were together. She loved him for saying that.” - Rick Riordan
11. “[Iris] squeezed his hand. "Don't lose hope, Frank. Rainbows always stand for hope.” - Rick Riordan
12. “Hope," Frank grumbled. "I'd rather have a few good weasels.” - Rick Riordan
13. “This is Annabeth,” Jason said. “Uh, normally she doesn't judo-flip people.” - Rick Riordan
14. “Wisdom's daughter walks alone—”“Ella!” Frank stood suddenly. “Maybe it's not the best time—”“The Mark of Athena burns through Rome,” Ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. “Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants' bane stands gold and pale, Won with pain from a woven jail.” - Rick Riordan
15. “Yay!” Tyson went around the couches and gave everyone a big hug—even Octavian, who didn't look thrilled about it.” - Rick Riordan
16. “Pluto's pauldrons,” Reyna cursed.” - Rick Riordan
17. “Coach Hedge yelled,“Thar she blows! Kansas, ahoy!”“Holy Hephaestus,” Leo muttered. “He really needs to work on his shipspeak.” - Rick Riordan
18. “Hmm…” Jason snapped his fingers. “I can call a friend for a ride.”Percy raised his eyebrows. “Oh, yeah? Me too. Let's see whose friend gets here first.” - Rick Riordan
19. “If not for the horses, Piper would've died.” - Rick Riordan
20. “Coach Hedge grumbled as he tended their wounds. “How come I never get invited on these violent trips?” - Rick Riordan
21. “I could have killed you.”“Or I could have killed you,” Percy said. Jason shrugged. “If there’d been an ocean in Kansas, maybe.”“I don’t need an ocean—”“Boys,” Annabeth interrupted, “I’m sure you both would’ve been wonderful at killing each other. But right now, you need some rest.”Food first,” Percy said. “Please?” - Rick Riordan
22. “Please, Percy...change your clothes. You smell like you've been run over by an electric horse.” - Rick Riordan
23. “Marvelous,” she said. “Tell me about this tapestry.”Arachne’s lips curled over her mandibles. “Why do you care? You're about to die.”“Well, yes,” Annabeth said. “But the way you captured the light is amazing. Did you use real gold thread for the sunbeams?” - Rick Riordan
24. “The first lesson every child of Athena learned: Mom was the best at everything, and you should never, ever suggest otherwise.” - Rick Riordan
25. “One false step, and you’ll fall all the way to Tartarus—and believe me, unlike the Doors of Death, this would be a one-way trip, a very hard fall! I will not have you dying before you tell me your plan for my artwork.” - Rick Riordan
26. “Frank held up the Chinese handcuffs. “Keep it simple.” - Rick Riordan
27. “He turned to Frank who was trying to pull his fingers out of the Chinese handcuffs…“Okay,” Frank relented. “Sure.” He frowned at his fingers, trying to pull them out of the trap. “Uh, how do you—”Leo chuckled. “Man, you’ve never seen those before? There’s a simple trick to getting out.”Frank tugged again with no luck. Even Hazel was trying not to laugh.Frank grimaced with concentration. Suddenly, he disappeared. On the deck where he’d been standing, a green iguana crouched next to an empty set of Chinese handcuffs.“Well done, Frank Zhang,” Leo said dryly, doing his impression of Chiron the centaur. “That is exactly how people beat Chinese handcuffs. They turn into iguanas.” - Rick Riordan
28. “Gods of Olympus.” Piper stared at Leo. “What happened to you?”His hair was greased back. He had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.“Long story,” he said.” - Rick Riordan
29. “Blackjack," Percy said, "this is Piper and Jason. They're friends."The horse nickered."Uh, maybe later," Percy answered.Piper had heard that Percy could speak to horses, being the son of the horse lord Poseidon, but she'd never seen it in action."What does Blackjack want?" she asked."Donuts," Percy said. "Always donuts.” - Rick Riordan
30. “Percy?" Annabeth gripped his arm."Oh, bad," he muttered. "Bad. Bad." He looked across the table at Frank and Hazel. "You guys remember Polybotes?""The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter," Hazel said. "The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember” - Rick Riordan
31. “I still don't understand what a sea god would be doing in Atlanta."Leo snorted. "What's a wine god doing in Kansas? Gods are weird.” - Rick Riordan
32. “Forget the chicken-nugget smoke screen. Percy wanted Leo to invent an anti-dream hat.” - Rick Riordan
33. “Naturally, Coach Hedge went ballistic; but Percy found it hard to take the satyr seriously since he was barely five feet tall."Never in my life!" Coach bellowed, waving his bat and knocking over a plate of apples. "Against the rules! Irresponsible!""Coach," Annabeth said, "it was an accident. We were talking, and we fell asleep.""Besides," Percy said, "you're starting to sound like Terminus."Hedge narrowed his eyes. "Is that an insult, Jackson? 'Cause I'll—I'll terminus you, buddy!” - Rick Riordan
34. “Leo drummed his fingers. “Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time.”Hazel frowned. “What is a chicken nugget?”“Oh, man…” Leo shook his head in amazement. “That's right. You’ve missed the last, like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—”“Doesn’t matter,” Annabeth interrupted.” - Rick Riordan
35. “You sneaked into my cabin?”Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Percy, you’ll be seventeen in two months. You can’t seriously be worried about getting in trouble with Coach Hedge.”“Uh, have you seen his baseball bat?”“Besides, Seaweed Brain, I just thought we could take a walk. We haven’t had any time to be together alone. I want to show you something—my favorite place aboard the ship.”Percy’s pulse was still in overdrive, but it wasn’t from fear of getting in trouble. “Can I, you know, brush my teeth first?”“You'd better,” Annabeth said. “Because I’m not kissing you until you do. And brush your hair while you’re at it.” - Rick Riordan
36. “She led him past the engine room, which looked like a very dangerous, mechanized jungle gym, with pipes and pistons and tubes jutting from a central bronze sphere. Cables resembling giant metal noodles snaked across the floor and ran up the walls. “How does that thing even work?” Percy asked. “No idea,” Annabeth said. “And I’m the only one besides Leo who can operate it.”“That’s reassuring.”“It should be fine. It’s only threatened to blow up once.”“You’re kidding, I hope.”She smiled. “Come on.” - Rick Riordan
37. “And,” Annabeth continued, “it reminds me how long we’ve known each other. We were twelve, Percy. Can you believe that?”“No, he admitted. “So…you knew you liked me from that moment?”She smirked. “I hated you at first. You annoyed me. Then I tolerated you for a few years. Then—”“Okay, fine.”She leaned in and kissed: him a good, proper kiss without anyone watching—no Romans anywhere, no screaming satyr chaperones. She pulled away. “I missed you, Percy.”Percy wanted to tell her the same thing, but it seemed too small a comment. While he had been on the Roman side, he’d kept himself alive almost solely by thinking of Annabeth. I missed you didn’t really cover that.” - Rick Riordan
38. “The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood they used to have their most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so Percy felt right at home.” - Rick Riordan
39. “Aphrodite,” [Annabeth] said. “Venus?” Hazel asked in amazement. “Mom,” Piper said with no enthusiasm. “Girls!” The goddess spread her arms like she wanted a group hug. The three demigods did not oblige. Hazel backed into a palmetto tree.” - Rick Riordan
40. “Down in the water, Octavian yelled, “Get me out of here! I’ll kill you!”“Tempting,” Percy called down.” - Rick Riordan
41. “Percy says be talked to a Nereid in Charleston Harbor!”“Good for him!” Leo yelled back. “The Nereid said we should seek help from Chiron’s brothers.”“What does that mean? The Party Ponies?” Leo had never met Chiron’s crazy centaur relatives, but he’d heard rumors of Nerf sword-fights, root beer-chugging contests, and Super Soakers filled with pressurized whipped cream. “Not sure,” Annabeth said. “But I’ve got coordinates. Can you input latitude and longitude in this thing?”“I can input star charts and order you a smoothie, if you want. Of course I can do latitude and longitude!” - Rick Riordan
42. “Once the others were below, Hazel and Leo faced each other awkwardly. They were alone except for Coach Hedge, who was back on the quarterdeck singing the Pokémon theme song. The coach had changed the words to: Gotta Kill ’Em All, and Leo really didn’t want to know why.” - Rick Riordan
43. “Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!”She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN. “Open it!” Leo yelled again.” - Rick Riordan
44. “Aphros nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes. “We have trained all the famous mer-heroes! Name a famous mer-hero, and we have trained him or her!”“Oh, sure,” Leo said. “Like…um, the Little Mermaid?”Aphros frowned. “Who? No! Like Triton, Glaucus, Weissmuller, and Bill!”“Oh. ”Leo had no idea who any of those people were. “You trained Bill? Impressive.” - Rick Riordan
45. “Piper had a new entry in her top-ten list of Times Piper Felt Useless. Fighting Shrimpzilla with a dagger and a pretty voice? Not so effective.” - Rick Riordan
46. “So…these Pillars of Hercules. Are they dangerous?”Annabeth stayed focused on the cliffs. “For Greeks, the pillars marked the end of the known world. The Romans said the pillars were inscribed with a Latin warning—”“Non plus ultra,” Percy said. Annabeth looked stunned. “Yeah. Nothing Further Beyond. How did you know?”Percy pointed. “Because I’m looking at it.” - Rick Riordan
47. “Save yourselves!” Percy warned. “It is too late for us!”Then he gasped and pointed to the spot where Frank was hiding. “Oh, no! Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”Nothing happened. “I said,” Percy repeated, “Frank is turning into a crazy dolphin!”Frank stumbled out of nowhere, making a big show of grabbing his throat. “Oh, no,” he said, like he was reading from a teleprompter. “I am turning into a crazy dolphin.”He began to change, his nose elongating into a snout, his skin becoming sleek and gray. He fell to the deck as a dolphin, his tail thumping against the boards. The pirate crew disbanded in terror.” - Rick Riordan
48. “You both passed out,” Percy said. “I don’t know why, but Ella told me not to worry about it. She said you were…sharing?”“Sharing,” Ella agreed. She crouched in the stern, preening her wing feathers with her teeth, which didn’t look like a very effective form of personal hygiene. She spit out some red fluff. “Sharing is good. No more blackouts. Biggest American blackout, August 14, 2003. Hazel shared. No more blackouts.”Percy scratched his head. “Yeah…we’ve been having conversations like that all night. I still don’t know what she’s talking about.” - Rick Riordan
49. “At the end of the warehouse was a dais constructed from pallets of books: stack of vampire novels, walls of James Patterson thrillers, and a throne from about a thousand copies of something called The Five Habits of Highly Aggressive Women.” - Rick Riordan
50. “Most helmsmen would’ve been satisfied with a pilot’s wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet, a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album, or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.” - Rick Riordan
51. “No more Lastrygonians.” Ella fluttered down and landed next to them. “Six minus six is zero. Spears are good for subtraction, yep.” - Rick Riordan
52. “Would Grandmother scold him? Would she say, “Frank! Thank the gods, you've come. I'm surrounded by monsters.”More likely she'd scold him, or mistake them for intruders and chase them off with a frying pan.” - Rick Riordan
53. “Ella is nervous,” the harpy muttered from her perch on the railing. “The elephant. The elephant is watching Ella.” - Rick Riordan
54. “At the front window was something that looked like a machine gun with a cluster of barrels. “Rocket launcher?” he wondered aloud. “Nope, nope! Potatoes. Ella doesn't like potatoes.”“Ella! Where are the others?”“Roof. Ogre-watching. Ella doesn't like ogres. Potatoes.”Potatoes? Frank didn't understand until he swiveled the machine gun around. Its eight barrels were loaded with spuds. At the base of the gun, a basket was filled with more edible ammunition…“They have cannonballs,” Frank said, “and we have a potato gun.”“Starch,” Ella said thoughtfully. “Starch is bad for ogres.” - Rick Riordan
55. “[Tyson] looked him over with that massive baby-brown eye. “You are not dead. I like it when you are not dead.” Ella fluttered to the ground and began preening her feathers. “Ella found a dog,” she announced. “A large dog. And a Cyclops.” Was she blushing?Before Percy could decide, his black mastiff pounced on him, knocking Percy to the ground and barking so loudly that even Arion backed up. “Hey, Mrs. O'Leary,” Percy said. “Yeah, I love you, too, girl. Good dog.” Hazel squeaked. “You have a hellhound named Mrs. O'Leary?”“Long story.” - Rick Riordan
56. “What? You run? Coward! Stand still and die!” Percy had no intention of doing that.” - Rick Riordan
57. “Jason muttered "And I saw something...Really terrible.""That was Hera," Thalia grumbled, "Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon.""That's it, Thalia Grace," Said the goddess. "I will turn you into and aardvark, so help me-" "Stop it, you two," Piper said. Amazingly, they both shut up.” - Rick Riordan
58. “Why would Roman gods want to date Chinese Canadians?” - Rick Riordan