"Men who have been in war have a different attitude about being wronged."

"Peace, a commodity purchased with friendship and safety and anything comfortable and all things familiar; peace that was a pleasant melody playing through the moments of their day; a chord striking only the notes of security and agreement and understanding and order."

"The weak thrive on indulgence."

"It must be great to spend time in a spot and if you walk away, it's so much better than before because of something you did."

"Memories with laughter are the best ones to keep."

"As you get older, you have to be willing and able to choose your own path for your life. And once you choose it, you walk it with strength. If you meet evil along the way, know that it is supposed to make you afraid, but it's not supposed to stop you. You walk through the fear and you walk through the evil, and you don't let either one become your master."

"A government that thinks it can remedy personal failure is an intrusion in everybody's life. No law is going to cure a human's lack of physical or mental effectiveness. I'd rather see democracy promote strength than reward weakness."

"Governments have absolutely no interest in self-reliance. It defeats one of the purposes for their existence. They encourage and thrive on dependency. The more of it they sell, the more necessary they are, and the more power and money they need."

"The power of our country relies on the character that comes out of each of our homes."

"He knew that prejudice was a necessary part of the weak spirit of some men."

"Gifford Ulrich didn't know the distance from despair to hope, but he knew hope didn't sleep in alleys."

"Time is not tinder for any flame. It will not gather a spark, it will not smolder. It will not change."

"I can't tell you what's in all of God's plans, but I do know part of them. He empowers you with reason and will. Those are your strengths. That's what gives you the chance to be great in his sight. He gave you a mind and codes to live by so you could be in charge of your own actions."

"It's a funny thing, one day you're living and the next day you're not sometimes, whether you have plans or not. Wishes and wants get trumped by the reaper every time. I don't even know if I would want a warning if it was my time. I think I'd rather be surprised."

"Devotion to self is necessary. First, place the mask on yourself and breathe deeply. Then help the others. If you don't save yourself, they will die."

"Just make sure the day doesn't pass without sayin' what's in your heart. Sometimes you pass up those chances and they're gone forever."

"Despite his best efforts, maintaining dignity in a head attached to an unclean body wrapped in unclean garments was a battle that encouraged surrender."

"What kind of country has this become? Decent people can't do anything without being watched."

"The gear teeth of his mind, the cogs of the brain's machinery that propelled his thoughts, were grinding to a halt, too long forced to fight against the friction of agony without the aid of hope, the lubricant for the soul."

"The world bein' so small ain't always a good thing for those of us who ain't searchin' for new and different stuff."

"I had always been a boy in this place, and many of the trees and rocks and streams had been old men when I knew them. Some had died. All had changed. I knew that. I had changed the most."

"We learn to love when we're young. If we learn hating better, it has to go somewhere. We can hate ourselves or we can hate somebody else. Most people would rather hate somebody else."

"True genius is a complete stranger to most, a momentary acquaintance to others, a lasting friend to few."

"You can be spiritual all by yourself. Everybody has a soul. But to be religious, it seems like you need other people, and then sometimes it becomes more about the people than the soul."

"Winning and losing was suddenly elevated to be about things that had no score and no teams and no uniforms; just one player at a time dealing with his life, his own struggle, his own triumph and torment."

"It remains for you to save one before saving others, to lead one before leading others."

"Reading had always been, through bad, boring, or better times, his best connection to humans."

"How do we keep convincing young people to die in fights they didn't start for reasons we're too devious to tell the truth about? It's way too easy for governments to spend other people's blood. Maybe only the sons and daughters of those who declare the wars should be allowed to fight and die."

"I wonder how long it takes for these people we elect to forget who they work for?"

"If you decide to take somebody on, don't look behind you, because there won't be anybody there. You'll be all alone."

"If the forest has a day of fire and the heat of the flames does not consume a special tree, it will still be changed; charred, but still standing."

"Fear was the hand of the devil holding a scalding hot branding iron and touching your brain and your stomach and yelling at you to run with leaden feet."

"They understood that brave men could be injured more by pity than by disease."

"The world has a way of dragging down our mood."

"Being tough today might cause you to be weak in the future."

"Doing without will wear on you until temptation is stronger than character, sometimes."

"We, the beggar class, have little to lose and our expectations are, at best, modest, and when we suffer, it seems we suffer to the depths, for there is nothing in our lives nor in our souls to buoy our hope. Nothing in the way of the blackness. It sinks to the bottom as the lead weight that is despair. We look forward such a short distance that our spirit is myopic, not to be corrected by any lens within our world."

"Sometimes when the three of us were together on our own, we would have a good time. I was pretty young, but sometimes we would go off in the woods and build forts and fight Indians and I think things were about as close to fine as they ever got right then during those times. In the woods. No parents. No yelling."

"Porches could be cleaned with a broom in a few minutes, but the soul could not be swept. It had to be shaken. And shaking the loess from a soul took a lifetime and more strength than most people had."

"Those who show no loyalty give up the right to expect any."

"Time does not heal, but it can liberate. A race run well can never be lost."

"Evil won't leave you alone until you take a stand or until you're dead."

"I wonder if God hears prayers if the only time you make them is when you're in trouble."

"We get so beat down by what we need, sometimes we forget how to want."

"One of the worst things I've learned about getting older is that there seems to be more change that you don't like than there was when you were younger and you can't do nothin' about it."

"My name Quan. Quan Nguyen. This Kim-Ly, wife. We next door. Do nails. We with Mr. Blaylock. He fight, we fight. We come here from Viet Nam. This good country, but sometimes, good people in good country have to fight."

"I wish but to share your gifts as a young boy on his birthday would excitedly rip open his packages to the view of others."

"My world was very limited in size and experience. Small things took on extra importance, at least to a child."

"There are struggles you cannot win, but a man can meet his own heart if value is found in loss. Give yourself permission to cry."

"I don't know how a reporter would ever understand a politician. Your job is supposed to be about finding the truth and enlightening people. Right? A politician's job is about hiding the truth and fooling people. Right? You want us to be better informed so we get smarter. They think we're dumb and it's to their advantage to keep us that way."