The Forest of Lost Souls

by Dean Koontz

chatoyancy, which is also called “cat’s-eye effect.”

It doesn’t pay to be special in this world, Uncle. In fact, it’s dangerous.

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.

Those are people who see only the surface of the infinite layers of our laminated reality.

It’s human and sane to want peace and to yearn for transcendence in this world of war and insistent nihilism.

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.

“Past, present, and future are one. To know what’s coming is to know what has been.

He has traveled so long in darkness that he can’t even imagine that a path of light exists.

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.

But all the myths that instructed us are still relevant, in part because they made us what we are, and in part because we still need stories to teach us how to live, as we keep forgetting.”

Western monkshood, also called “wolfsbane,” has a toxicity equal to that of any lethal plant. The roots and leaves are especially poisonous.

Aconitine and aconine are the poisons in monkshood.

A fully satisfying reaction to monkshood can take from just ten minutes to a few hours.

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.

“So you’ll keep in mind that we don’t get a thousand chances in this life. When one of the best kind comes along, it’s rarer than you might know at the time.”

Everything’s coming apart. There are forces rising that aren’t supposed to exist.”

Dogs keep their promises, though the promises that people, in turn, make to them are less reliably fulfilled.

the escalating power of technology has grown beyond humanity’s ability to accurately assess its impact and control it, that we are the reckless agents of our annihilation.