By and large... the good's an illusion, little fables folks tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming too much.

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

A life without love is like a tree without fruit.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Outside, daylight was bleeding slowly toward dusk.

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.

It is not what you know that determines the quality of your life

But sometimes that can make a girl so much more appealing. The beauty who doesn't know she’s beautiful.

I'm basically a country person.

In the last few centuries we've managed to reduce how much we kill each other, we've learned some basic lessons about public health, and life is relatively good for more people than ever before.

I want to win at everything. I usually don't like things that I'm not good at, but it doesn't mean I don't want to win at them.

Your hands, your eyes, your voice, your thoughts are your servants.

The chief support of an autocracy is a standing army. The chief support of a democracy is an educated people.

With time the unbearable becomes shocking, becomes sad, and finally becomes poignant.

Most of my heroes are just decent people. Decency is rare and underrated.

People who become important activists, they also struggle with the process of discovery.