Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia (Zoey Ashe #3)

by Jason Pargin

Secrets, Will liked to say, are the fragile threads that hold all of society together.

If you give anything away for free without limits, you’re automatically setting it at the wrong price and the market will adjust. The cost isn’t due to greed, it’s to make sure you value the sandwich enough to actually eat it.

cruelty is more addictive than any drug ever sold on these streets. Your average citizen just wants a righteous excuse before they dose.”

That’s what real boredom is, this hollow feeling of not living with your own purpose.

You’re driving yourself crazy asking where’s the exact solution, as if the universe is presenting all of this as a series of obstacles to test you. When in reality, all you can do is manage the problems and minimize damage.”

I think the most common mistake we make in dealing with people is in assuming that while our own feelings are a mess of contradictions, everybody else is operating with a clear agenda and any inconsistencies must be due to some kind of ruse.”

“Look,” said Alonzo, “what the citizens want couldn’t be simpler: They want all evildoers to be instantly apprehended and punished, with perfect accuracy and no inconvenience to the innocent. They want jobs with good pay, flexibility, and low stress but also want all products and services to be available instantly, at all hours, and dirt cheap. They want generous government infrastructure and benefits, but without paying taxes. In other words, they want the impossible. So what they get instead is a show.”

you’re so narrow in your thinking that you’re sure you’re the only true human being and that everyone else is trying to be you and just failing to various degrees.