He Who Fights with Monsters 2 (He Who Fights with Monsters, #2)

by Shirtaloon

“Our feelings are not always the wisest guide.

“I wake up every morning, proud of who I am,” he told them. “I go out into the world, never regretting that I didn’t at least try and be the person I want to be. I face dangers and make mistakes. Sometimes I get beat, and sometimes I win. I stand up for what I believe in, whatever it costs me. When you give everything, you have to be who you want to be, that’s freedom, whatever your circumstances.”

“There are always reasons to ignore the rules,” Gert said, “which is why we must be fastidious in following them. They are the very basis for civilisation, without which we would exist in a state of anarchy.”

“Don’t say that,” he said. “I can’t live up to it.” “None of us live up to the expectations we put on ourselves,” Rufus said.

Acting just for the sake of doing something is borrowing trouble when we already have enough.”

“Education is more prominent in your homeland, isn’t it?” Cassandra asked. “For now. The government keeps taking away money from the public schools to give to the wealthy private ones, but they haven’t finished the job quite yet.”

I learned two lessons about people that have always held true, in my world or yours. One was that people really like to fill in the gaps in a story. You give someone the right selection of facts and you don’t have to lie to them. They’ll connect the pieces in accordance with their own beliefs and lie to themselves for you.” “Wouldn’t that make people wary of you, once they figure out what you’re doing?” “That’s where the second lesson comes in,” Jason said. “When someone believes something, they believe it hard. Too hard. They’ll dismiss good evidence that contradicts their belief and accept spurious evidence that supports it. So, in their mind, if you’re wrong, they’re very wrong, and the whole point is that their thoughts don’t go down that path.”

“If your goddess is willing to hand over such information, then by what moral stricture does she not? Instead, she looks to ransom a man’s principles. You just tried to turn me on my friend, a man who saved my life, and you have the gall to lay there looking surprised? If you want to help me, then help me. Bring your self-serving ways to me again and you’ll get worse than you got today.”

“You should always welcome being proven wrong,” Jason said. “It means your understanding of the world just got a little bit better.”

“Money and power are great,” Jason said. “Anything you want to get, they can give you. Anything you want to do, they can let you. But you have to want things worth having and want to do things worth doing. Money and power have to be a means, not an end, or you'll lead a joyless life.”

How does something like that even happen?” "The short answer? Me. Really, though, it's the same way anything happens. You look at what you want to happen, then figure out what it'll take to get there from where you are. You can do almost anything if you're willing to do what it takes. People mostly fail at things because they balk at what they have to do. It's not that the path isn't there but that they aren't willing to walk it. There's a price they aren't willing to pay, be it literal, political, social, whatever. But if you're willing to commit, impossible is just a word for people convincing themselves not to try.”

“Children aren't a time-effective proposition.”

Where I come from they call it a weirdness coupon. If people expect you to do strange things, then they accept it easier when you do. Have you ever noticed how people don’t expect me to respect authority or adhere to ordinary codes of conduct?”

“I’ve never been good at fitting in, so I’ve learned how to stand out the right way.

“I don’t know what you are but you need to stop hiding, because I know a hider isn’t it,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to find people willing to put up with me, good and bad. Figure out what you are, and be the ever-living crap out of that thing. Then find the people willing to put up with it.

But sometimes when the world tries to bend you, you have to stand straight until one of you breaks.”

“The thing I realised when I truly came to accept that magic is real is that the impossible is just a limitation I put on my own thinking. If you have the time and the resolve, you can do just about anything. But you already know that.”

So, I decided early on that I was going to be who I am and people could take it or leave it. Like me or hate me, I’ll take passion over ambivalence. It lets me know who to avoid and who to be friends with. It makes for a better life.”

“That’s because you like control. If you're the one giving the choices, you get to decide what the choices are. Otherwise, people might go finding their own options that don't fit your narrative.”

“There’s nothing wrong with illusions. Justice is an illusion. Civilisation, morality. They’re illusions we all agree to share because they make us better.”

“Democracy is a pack of gullible idiots being exploited by the selfish and immoral. When you have the power to take control, you can fix things.”

“This is not a test of the willingness or unwillingness to kill. It is a test of resolve, which can be shown in many ways. The refusal to bend, even if it means giving up what you came for. A determination to perform any act in pursuit of a goal.”

“When truly challenged, many falter when they should follow through or compromise themselves when they should hold to their principles.”

“Trauma is not an excuse to hurt other people,”

With