The Forest of Lost Souls

by Dean Koontz

her entertainment needs are provided by books and nature.

Our memories from early childhood are far from indelible; they fade until, by our late teens, if not before, they are like yellowed photographs from a previous century.

“My life passes like a shadow. Yet a little while, and all will be consummated.”

Hope is armor against despair, and as her uncle taught her, patience is a polish that keeps that armor bright. We can’t know the ultimate why of anything, although if we train ourselves to read the intricate fabric that time weaves, we see a pattern certain to console and inspire.

Life always eventually offers us a lamp to press back the darkness humanity brought into it so very long ago, a lamp if we are able to see it and seize it; so said her uncle, who had seined her from the sediment of the city.

Famines are seldom the fault of nature, nearly always the consequence of either human idiocy or a sinister intention to use starvation as a weapon.

A police lock-release gun is the ultimate passkey.

Now the meadow and the forested uplands stand testament to the truth that those who lust and live for power contribute nothing useful to the world other than the nutrients that their decomposition will add to the soil.

“Because all things will come to you, good and bad. The bad is yours to cure by action, the good to enjoy and share.

Another and necessary kind of courage, which he has come to understand by reading adventure novels, is to know yourself for what you really are, accept what that is, and correct those habits and attitudes that need to be corrected.

And what will be cannot be allowed to detract from what is, from the beauty of the music or the flavor of the food, because all she has is the moment; all anyone ever has is the moment, and moments, each in succession, are precious.

America is being reshaped from democracy to oligarchy.

Although the world is a place of wonders, Vida, what can be seen of it is the least part, and what can’t be seen is the magnificent why and how of the world. Happiness and peace require patient waiting for the sight that at the moment can’t be seen.

Have pity on those who love and are separated, on the lonely, on those who mourn, on those who fear, on all the little animals that live their lives as prey.

The ruling elite loudly champion diversity but use the powerful tools of technology to shape everyone into like-minded worker bees and mindless consumers, into an obedient oneness.

And if you don’t even know your enemy’s name, how can you hope to know when he’s coming after you?

This is a time in history when it’s best to endure the current shitstorm and keep faith that it won’t last. America’s ruling class is riddled with bad and stupid people who despise the lower classes, get rich by dealing with the nation’s enemies while impoverishing their fellow citizens, and send young men into battle for a purpose ill defined, with rules of engagement that ensure the war can’t be won, leaving those who fight it humiliated. Until better and wiser people wrench the country off the road to ruin, Sam Crockett faces the future with hope and gratitude, reminding himself each morning and evening that his life is short and passes like a shadow.

Rare is the man who knows the full truth of his own heart,

An orgasm is a petty matter of a minute or less, with little risk other than a curable disease, but when you blow open someone’s head with a high-power round or carve someone’s guts out with a knife, you know you’ve done something big. You have set yourself apart from the ruck of humanity.

“The world is a mysterious place, Regis, and the ways of the divine are even more mysterious.”

In defense of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

“Principles can cost you everything, and maybe for nothing.”

“It’s a bad idea to marry a fantasy instead of the real woman.”

Nuclear fission, fusion, hydroelectric are all clean. Even natural gas is cleaner and far less destructive than what’s needed to harness enough wind.

Spending trillions on a worthless quick fix will crash the economy.

When we’ve printed trillions in new money to harness the wind, when then the dollar collapses, millions of people will be impoverished.

There is strength in solidarity, but also in suffering and in struggle and in hope.