Lost Souls (Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, #4)

by Dean Koontz

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable. —G. K. CHESTERTON

As for the powers that be, Grandmama said they were ignorant, and ignorant was also worse than dumb. A dumb person couldn’t learn some things no matter how hard he tried. An ignorant person was smart enough but was too lazy or too mean to learn, or too satisfied with himself. Being truly dumb is a condition, just like being tall or short, or beautiful. Being ignorant is a choice. Grandmama said there were very few truly dumb people in Hell but so many ignorant that you couldn’t count them all.

Deucalion possessed a quality of otherworldliness, the aura of a man purified by suffering, who lived now in a hallowed condition.

“The pride was there, a tendency to corruption,” Deucalion said. “Pride can become arrogance. Arrogance is the father of cruelty. But in the beginning, there was also an idealism, a hope that he could change the human condition.”

He dislikes being distracted from the wonders of himself.

“Her campaign slogan could be, ‘No bull ever threw me, and I won’t throw any bull.’” “Now if the country can just survive until she’s old enough to run for office.”