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As a rule, people aren’t good at handling power. And the second you start to think you’re better at controlling your power than anyone else, you’ve already taken the first step.
Build a man a fire and he’s warm for a day,” I said. “But set a man on fire and he’s warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett.
“What? What did I ever do to you?” Bob protested, indignant. “I’m not even supposed to be here today!”
“Sometimes I think that’s where most of us are,” I said. “Fighting off the crazy as best we can. Trying to become something better than we were. It’s that second bit that’s important.”
“You were going to be tempted, eh? Going to have to deal with monstrous urges? Going to have to face the possibility that you might change if you lost focus for a minute? Lose control of yourself? Maybe hurt somebody you care about?” He shook his head. “Cry me a fucking river, man. Boo-fucking-hoo.”
Thomas, like most men, regarded a throw pillow as something to throw.
“You’re Charlie Brown, stupid. You’ve got to try for the damned football because that’s who you are.”
“I am who I am, too. I love violence. I love treachery. I love your pain—and the best part, the part I love most, is that I am doing it for your own good.” Her eyes gleamed white all the way around her irises. “This is me being one of the good guys.”
Graves aren’t for the dead. They’re for the loved ones the dead leave behind them. Once those loved ones have gone, once all the lives that have touched the occupant of any given grave had ended, then the grave’s purpose was fulfilled and ended.
“I think she likes you, young man.” “Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I could tell, because of the cleaver.”
“Thwart,” I said. “To prevent someone from accomplishing something by means of visiting gratuitous violence upon his smarmy person.”
“My lips touched dog lips! Get me some mouthwash! Get me some iodine!”
“The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom,”
Do you want to tell me who you really are?” Mac was silent for a moment. Then he said, “No. That’s mine.”
Kringle recovered from the block swiftly.
Fighting Santa!!
But you can’t go around changing your definition of right and wrong (or smart and stupid) just because doing the wrong thing happens to be really convenient. Sometimes it isn’t easy to be sane, smart, and responsible. Sometimes it sucks. Sucks wang. Camel wang. But that doesn’t turn wrong into right or stupid into smart.
Learn to fight naked and you can never be disarmed. Which is fine, I guess, as long as there aren’t mosquitoes.
Sometimes the things that are good for you, in the long run, hurt for a little while when you first get to them.
