Sometimes the best offense was avoiding self-destruction.

Making mistakes is part of learning to choose well. No way around it. Choices are thrust upon us, and we don't always get things right. Even postponing or avoiding a decision can become a choice that carries heavy consequences. Mistakes can be painful-sometimes they cause irrevocable harm-but welcome to Earth. Poor choices are part of growing up, and part of life. You will make bad choices, and you will be affected by the poor choices of others. We must rise above such things.

I blush to think of her beholding my work," Verl confessed. So do we," Newel assured him.

Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.

It was an emergency!" Seth blurted. "Read my lips - emergency reading - not some demented idea of fun. If I was starving, I would eat asparagus. If somebody held a gun to my head, I would watch a soap opera. And to save Fablehaven, I would read a book, okay, are you happy?" You had best be careful, Seth," Grandma warned. "The love of reading can be contagious." I just lost my appetite," he declared.

When jumping is the sole option, you jump, and try to make it work.

We all posses different gifts and abilities. How we use those gifts determines who we are.