Pain los[es] its power when other things bec[o]me more important.

Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.

Being polite to a person is not a sign of respect for them. It is merely a sign of a good upbringing and a balanced nature.

It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority-even oppressive authority-for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.

I froze, shocked. (And don't try to clam that you did anything different the first time a government bureaucrat pulled a gun on you.)

There are two kinds of people in this world, son. Those who save lives, and those who take lives." "And what of those who protect and defend? Those who save lives by taking lives?" "That's like trying to stop a storm by blowing harder. Ridiculous. You can't protect by killing.

A man was defined not by his flaws, but by how he overcame them.