The Mercy of Snakes Quotes

“But that is the way of the world: sadness and delight, anger and forbearance, hatred and love—all woven together in every inch of the tapestry.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“By now, he should not be the least surprised by the capacity of evil people to deceive their credulous friends and neighbors—or by the unconscious preference of so many people to be deceived.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“In a world sick with envy that leads to coveting that leads to greed that too often results in violence, it wouldn’t seem that something as small as excellent muffins could lift a man’s spirits, even during talk of murder. But that is the way of the world: sadness and delight, anger and forbearance, hatred and love—all woven together in every inch of the tapestry.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“Fannie Ann Tatas,”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“What a repugnant, abhorrent, contemptible, deceitful, shifty, treacherous, insidious sonofabitch! She has never before been so full of adjectives.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“Members of the second group, who underestimate the prevalence of evil, are those most often targeted by it. They can pretty much be trusted not to do profound evil themselves, but they can’t be counted on to recognize clues that might determine which of their neighbors has ten dismembered bodies buried in his basement. The third type, those who patiently analyze evil from numerous psychological and sociological perspectives until its sharp shiny edges are dull and blurry, are too indecisive to be allies in any fraught encounter with darkness. In fact, they are often likely to have overanalyzed the situation to such an extent that they have talked themselves into an alliance with monsters.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“he cruises, he indulges in some amateur philosophizing, separating humanity into three groups. First are those for whom the words right and wrong have no meaning other than for such as traffic directions: You turn right at the second stoplight; if you turn left, you’ve gone wrong. They are nihilists, though not all of them know it and though many of them would bristle at the label. All such people are difficult to trust: some are dangerous, and some are lethal sociopaths. Second are those who recognize right and wrong, a natural tao, and who try to live by what is right, as much as they can. These people are aware that real and implacable evil exists in the world; however, as a psychological defense mechanism, many of them grossly underestimate the prevalence of it. Third are those who, busy with their lives, haven’t given much thought to right and wrong. When encountering profound evil, they are not sure what to think about it, and they seek to understand it as a complex phenomenon when in fact it’s simple. By imagining evil as infinitely nuanced, they drain all the bloody color out of it, render it in grays, and move on. This is the largest group. The”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“where the animals that wake and live in the absence of the sun are going about their business more peacefully than does humanity. There”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“First are those for whom the words right and wrong have no meaning other than for such as traffic directions: You turn right at the second stoplight; if you turn left, you’ve gone wrong. They are nihilists, though not all of them know it and though many of them would bristle at the label. All such people are difficult to trust: some are dangerous, and some are lethal sociopaths. Second are those who recognize right and wrong, a natural tao, and who try to live by what is right, as much as they can. These people are aware that real and implacable evil exists in the world; however, as a psychological defense mechanism, many of them grossly underestimate the prevalence of it. Third are those who, busy with their lives, haven’t given much thought to right and wrong. When encountering profound evil, they are not sure what to think about it, and they seek to understand it as a complex phenomenon when in fact it’s simple. By imagining evil as infinitely nuanced, they drain all the bloody color out of it, render it in grays, and move on. This is the largest group.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“First are those for whom the words right and wrong have no meaning other than for such as traffic directions: You turn right at the second stoplight; if you turn left, you’ve gone wrong. They are nihilists, though not all of them know it and though many of them would bristle at the label. All such people are difficult to trust: some are dangerous, and some are lethal sociopaths. Second are those who recognize right and wrong, a natural tao, and who try to live by what is right, as much as they can. These people are aware that real and implacable evil exists in the world; however, as a psychological defense mechanism, many of them grossly underestimate the prevalence of it. Third are those who, busy with their lives, haven’t given much thought to right and wrong. When encountering profound evil, they are not sure what to think about it, and they seek to understand it as a complex phenomenon when in fact it’s simple. By imagining evil as infinitely nuanced, they drain all the bloody color out of it, render it in grays, and move on. This is the largest group. The conclusion he makes regarding the three groups has often kept him alive when he should have ended up bleeding from every orifice and then some. Members of the second group, who underestimate the prevalence of evil, are those most often targeted by it.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“Sure, I can turn on the TV or music, but even then I can’t turn off the quiet, the emptiness.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“As Earth rotates away from the sun in its daily pursuit of darkness, the oaks and maples and cedars bleed elongated shadows across the grounds.”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes

“fatuous, imbecilic, asinine, witless, foolish”
― Dean Koontz, The Mercy of Snakes