"Leo grabbed the neasrest thing he could find- a Porta-Potty seat- and threw it at the face. Leve me alone!"

"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."

"Mythologically speaking, if there's anything I hate worse than trios of old ladies, it's bulls. Last summer, I fought the Minotaur on top of Half-Blood Hill. This time what I saw up there was even worse: two bulls. And not just regular bulls - bronze ones the size of elephants. And even that wasn't bad enough. Naturally they had to breathe fire, too."

"The good thing is Jason and I both outrank you so we can both tell you to shut up."

"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!"

"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself."

"Yep, that pretty much describes my life: because Poseidon."

"For the first time, Cupid's gaze seemed sympathetic. "Oh, I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy." His voice sounded smaller, much more human. "Sometimes it makes you incredible sad. But at least you've faced it now. That's the only way to conquer me."

"Keep moving. Don't get bogged down. Don't think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when you don't feel like it."

"This is Leo. I'm the... What's my title? Am I like, admiral, or captain, or...""Repair boy.""Very funny, Piper."

"My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful."

"Think about Isis, Jaz repeated. "And Sadie, thereis a purpose. You taught us that. We choose to believe in Ma'at. We create order out of chaos, beauty and meaning out of ugly randomness. That's what Egypt is all about. That's why its name, its ren, has endured for millennia. Don't despair. Otherwise Chaos wins."

"They passed a couple of guys making a bronze windup toy. At least that's what it looked like. It was a six-inch-tall centaur-half man, half horse-armed with a miniature bow. One of the campers cranked the centaur's tail, and it whirred to life. It galloped across the table, yelling, "Die, mosquito! Die, mosquito! and shooting everything in sight."

"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."

"I nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

"Just follow my lead,' I said. 'It'll be fun.''Please,' Sam begged, 'don't let those words be carved on my tombstone."

"Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tyson pounding the Earthborn into the ground like a game of whack-a-mole. Ella was fluttering above him, dodging missiles and calling out advice: "The groin. The Earthborn's groin is sensitive."SMASH!"Good. Yes. Tyson found its groin."

"Now-what's our game plan? Coach Hedge belched. He'd already had three espressos and a plate of doughnuts, along with two napkins and another flower from the vase on the table. He would've eaten the silverware, except Piper had slapped his hand. "Climb the mountain, Hedge said. "Kill everything except Piper's dad. Leave. "Thank you General Eisenhower, Jason grumbles."

"Rachel: You're a half-blood, too?Annabeth: Shhh! Just announce it to the world, how about?Rachel: Okay. Hey, everybody! These two aren't human! They're half Greek god!...They don't seem to care."

"Courage.Hope.Sacrifice."

"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."

"Then Thalia Grace became their leader and started recruiting even more young women to their cause, which grated on Nico " as if Bianca's death could be forgotten. As if she could be replaced."

"This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray.""Go astray?""Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure."

"The right choice is hardly ever the easy choice."

"No,' Nico said. 'Getting a second life is one thing. Making it a better life, that's the trick.' As soon as he said it, Nico realized he could've been talking about himself. He decided not to bring that up."

"Look," Percy continued, "I know I'm new here. I know you guys don't like to mention the massacre in the nineteen eighties-""He mentioned it!" one of the ghosts whimpered."

"They live in human memory, man. That's what keeps them alive."

"It's him," I said. "Typhon."I was seriously hoping Chiron would say something good, like 'No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us!"

"Sometimes small things can become very large, indeed."

"Grover started to sniffle and I figured if I didn't cheer him up he'd either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset."

"I think children love reading, and they will make time for it if we put the right books into their hands. And I hope I get the chance to keep being one of the people that writes them."

"I wasn't aiming at the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway."

"I didn't answer, but, please-nothing is obvious with boys. For such simple creatures, they are quite baffling."

"Gaea? Leo shook his head. "Isn't that Mother Nature? She's supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and dear and rabbits doing her laundry."Leo, that's Snow White, Piper said."

"The Romans always wanted bread and circuses-food and entertainement! As we destroy their city, I will offer them both. Behold, a sample!"Someething dropped from the ceiling and landed at Percy's feet: a loaf of sandwich bread in a white plastic wrapper with red and yellow dots.Percy picked it up. "Wonder bread?""Magnificent, isn't it?" Ephialtes eyes danced with crazy excitement."

"Eventually we all must return home."

"Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about a stealthy as water buffalos."

"A big sacrifice is coming, and you won't have the courage to make it. That will cost you dearly. It will cost the world dearly."

"The wind blowing through my ripped clothes was so cold that I felt like a Percysicle."

"It's hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one."

"They'd seen his deepest secrets. They knew who he was, what he was. But they didn't seem to care. No, they cared more. They weren't judging him. They were concerned."

"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."

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

"But family connections are weird. Even if your relatives aren't good to you, they're still your blood. You can't lose that connection completely. And believe me, I've got a few relatives on my dad's side I'd love to lose."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"The sign was spray-painted in Arabic and English, probably from some attempt by the farmer to sell his wares in the market. The English read: Dates-best price. Cold Bebsi. "Bebsi?" I asked."Pepsi," Walt said. "I read about it on the Internet. There's no 'p' in Arabic. Everyone here calls the soda Bebsi.""So you have to have Bebsi with your bizza?""Brobably."

"GETTING KILLED BY TARTARUS didn't seem like much of an honor. As Annabeth stared up at his dark whirlpool face, she decided she'd rather die in some less memorable way-maybe falling down the stairs, or going peacefully in her sleep at age eighty, after a nice quiet life with Percy. Yes, that sounded good."

"He was dressed just like on TV, with lots of silver chains and bracelets, ripped jeans, and a black muscle shirt (Which was kind of stupid, since he didn't have any muscles)."

"Scrawny? Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot."

"I've been reading Greek mythology since I was a kid. I also taught it when I was a sixth grade teacher, so I knew a lot of mythological monsters already. Sometimes I still use books and Web sites to research, though. Every time I research Greek mythology, I learn something new!"