Book Count: 9

“A victorious leader plans for many eventualities before the battle; a defeated leader plans for only a few. Many options bring victory, few options bring defeat, no options at all spell disaster.”

“You know, kiddo, you can’t always control what happens to you in your life, but you do have a lot of control over your responses. So what do I do with this hurt? I write. I do my road work. I do my chores. I don’t snivel.”

“When a person falls in love, it happens almost instantaneously. After that, minor things like the truth about the newly beloved are cast aside unless those ‘truths’ happen to reinforce the wonderfulness of said love subject.”

“As people get older, they start to decide whether they like stuff based on their first experience. Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks simply because, if he doesn’t get it the first time he gives up.”

“You see, the way I look at it, if you halt your forward progress every time you get a little tired or irritable or whatever, then you are suffering from a lack of discipline. On the other hand, if you keep pushing when you are chronically tired or really sick, then you are a fool. A lot of men do this because of a misplaced sense of macho. It’s not macho, it’s stupid.”

“And the lesson is that when you get stuck or emotionally jammed up one of the ways to get yourself unclogged and flowing again is just to keep moving. Run. Walk. Jog. Write. Do the dishes. Or whatever. But don’t stand around waiting for a flash from Heaven.”

“This was his knowing nature, an egoism so icy, so crafty that a country boy like myself could only stare with eyes opened wide in amazement. He was not a simple, endlessly passive type like myself.”

“And Kasia was all of those things. She had thick wheat-golden hair that she kept in a braid to her waist, and her eyes were warm brown, and her laugh was like a song that made you want to sing it.”

“And I wasn’t old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.”

“I noticed for the first time how cramped and unformed was my own hand-writing, without individuality, without style, uneducated even, the writing of an indifferent pupil taught in a second-rate school.”

“In a little while it would be different, there would come to-morrrow, and the next day, and another year. And we would be changed perhaps, never sitting quite like this again. Some of us would go away, or suffer, or die, the future stretched away in front of us, unknown, unseen, not perhaps what we wanted, not what we had planned. This moment was safe though, this could not be touched.”

“I’ve enjoyed this hour with you more than I have enjoyed anything for a very long time. You’ve taken me out of myself, out of despondency and introspection, both of which have been my devils for a year.”

“His quality of detachment was peculiar to himself, and I knew that we might continue thus, without speaking, throughout the meal and it would not matter. There would be no sense of strain.”

“Tell you what,” said Victor. “You remember me, and I’ll remember you, and that way we won’t be forgotten.”

“And for the first time, Kell saw Lila. Not as she wanted to be, but as she was. A frightened, albeit clever, girl trying desperately to stay alive.”

“But I have had enough melodrama in this life, and would willingly give my five senses if they could ensure us our present peace and security. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”