Zero Sum (John Rain, #9)

by Barry Eisler

one of the advantages of being as old as I am is that age enables greater clarity about the true motivations of one’s youth. Things we once told ourselves were matters of principle are revealed instead to have been driven by pride. Risks we judged as the product of reason, we later understand were in fact an outgrowth of insecurity.”

When we get to know someone, there are light things we can see, and dark ones we bump up against, isn’t that so?”

Psychologists call this mental state “cognitive dissonance,” as the brain, confronted with an uncomfortable or unexplainable fact pattern, struggles to make sense of it.