Elend shook his head. "We can survive this. But, the only way that will happen is if our people don't give up. They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel that this fight can be won. So, this is what I ask of you. I don't care if you're an optimist or a pessimist—I don't care if secretly, you think we'll all be dead before the month ends. On the outside, I want to see you smiling. Do it in defiance, if you have to. If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling. As the Survivor taught us.

In the end, I must proclaim that no good can be achieved of false means. For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method.

Control yourself. Become someone who can handle this.

It was amazing how many books one could fit into a room, assuming one didn't want to move around very much.

Better to be the failure who nobly strived than the success who never really had to.

You could be writing the book that changes your life.

Words are where most change begins.