What glitters may not be gold; and even wolves may smile; and fools will be led by promises to their deaths.

Raven jerks and stiffens. For a second, I think she is only surprised: Her mouth goes round, her eyes wide. Then she begins teetering backward, and I know that she is dead. Falling, falling, falling . . .

Perfection is a promise, and a reassurance that we are not wrong.

Po flickered. "Thank you?" it repeated. "What is that?" Liesl thought. "It means, You were wonderful," she said. "It means, I couldn't have done it without you.

He is my world and my world is him and without him there is no world.

Things would get difficult again. But that was okay too. The bravery was in moving forward, no matter what.

But the guilt goes even deeper than that. It, too, is dust: Layers and layers of it have accumulated. Because if it weren’t for me, Lena and Alex would never have been caught at all. I told on them. I was jealous. God forgive me, for I have sinned.