Mitticus

“Arden was always the person I loved and trusted the most.
"She would read to me. That's all we ever did. She'd read, and I'd listen, and it was magic. When we were together, it didn't matter what was happening with my parents, at school, or with anything else. I didn't matter. I didn't exist. Arden's words were so much better than the numbers in my head. They could take me places better than anything I'd ever dreamed of. I wanted to read all those books so bad, and I couldn't do it. I tried and tried and tried, and I couldn't do it. But it was okay, because Arden could, and she always took me with her.”
― Kate Scott, Counting to D

“YOU TRIED TO WARN HIM, he said, removing Binky’s nose-bag.

“Yes, sir. Sorry.”

YOU CANNOT INTERFERE WITH FATE. WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE WHO SHOULD LIVE AND WHO SHOULD DIE?

Death watched Mort’s expression carefully.

ONLY THE GODS ARE ALLOWED TO DO THAT, he added. TO TINKER WITH THE FATE OF EVEN ONE INDIVIDUAL COULD DESTROY THE WHOLE WORLD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Mort nodded miserably.

“Are you going to send me home?” he said.

Death reached down and swung him up behind the saddle.

BECAUSE YOU SHOWED COMPASSION? NO. I MIGHT HAVE DONE IF YOU HAD SHOWN PLEASURE. BUT YOU MUST LEARN THE COMPASSION PROPER TO YOUR TRADE.

“What’s that?”

A SHARP EDGE.”
― Terry Pratchett, Mort

“I shall ever despise the man who can be gratified by the passion which he never wished to inspire, nor solicited the avowal of.”
― Jane Austen, Lady Susan

“We don’t poison. We shoot, stab, cut, slice and dice, eviscerate, disembowel, and decapitate. Sometimes shoot and blow up our enemies. We’ve been known to bury our dead in the swamp. But we don’t poison. Poison is wussy.”
― Faith Hunter, Dark Queen