More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
It was nice to be inside someone’s sanctuary. He’d lived as an interloper for so long. He smiled as the dog calmed.
It was strange to find so much luxury so scarcely possessed.
Their wealth was apparently so boundless that treasure no longer held any value.
Nearly fifty years of survival has taught me that often the best time to run away is shortly before you arrive.
opportunity, like misfortune, could not be ceded.
“A poet is just a tramp with a thesaurus,”
denial is a desperate imitation of hope.
One could feel clearheaded and still be deceived. It seemed a lesson deserving of further consideration at a later time.
Disobedience begins with discourse.”
wonder only ceases when examination ends.
Stolen affection is a bitter investment,
I try not to dwell on my mistakes because it doesn’t change them; it only changes me.
“We all forget we’re mortal now and then. We have to, to keep from going mad. But I never forget the people I love, and that keeps me from taking myself for granted.
Sometimes the best way to protect your belongings is to shroud them in something foul.
How one small human could make such an overwhelming volume of chaos
“Then one day, they finally do escape, and you don’t feel free. You just feel left behind.”
Virtue tires; evil does not.
cynics don’t belong in the classroom. Teaching requires a certain amount of idealism.
To take the throne, you can’t begin by posing as a king. You must first introduce yourself as a servant:
in the end, there’s nothing eloquent about death.
The past was full of traps of guilt, dread, and bewilderment. It was better to be distracted by the lives of others;
There’s no sweeter music, I think, than when we sing for our lives.
Often it is while skirting inconvenience that we encounter catastrophe.
It was strange to feel so obvious and yet be so readily overlooked.
True conspiracies are inflexible and susceptible to discovery, but imaginary plots are ever evolving and, as a result, invulnerable. That is to say, conspiracies are perishable, paranoia is not.
I know I must trade love for duty, but I’m afraid that will only work if I do not hold you like this or let your voice warm my ear.”
It is constraint, purpose, and labor that gives a soul its shape.
the human race is motivated not by aspiration with all its sharp edges and long drops but by the desire for certainty, inclusion, consistency.
what distinguishes the amateur from the professional is not a single stroke of success but rather the lengthy education of repeated failure.
Praise was like chocolate; a little made you euphoric, too much just made you sick.