Earthfall

Sometimes those who care for the whole community must act in a way that harms the individual. For a good man it never becomes easy and he avoids it when he can; but when people need him to be harsh, he will be harsh indeed, and he won't shrink from it, he'll do it with his own hand and let it be known what he does.

He hated the way they thought. He hated the way they didn't think. It was hard to imagine which of them he hated more.

You're the only one that I would be glad to be close to forever, because all your secrets are bright and good and I love you for them.

That's what survival means, for me. I thought it was a matter of staying alive, but it isn't. Nobody lives forever anyway. It's how you're remembered. It's what your children thought of you, what they think of you after you're dead. That's survival.

What cannot be healed has been healed. What was lost forever has been found. Therefore let that which cannot be forgiven be forgiven.

Haven't you ever seen a 3-year-old when he makes a foolish blunder? He looks at whatever child or adult is nearby and screams at him "Look at what you made me do!" That's the moral universe that [they] always lived in.

May the day when you need courage never come.

Even as she said it, though, she knew the day would come.

Frozen, right? But to others, it looks like you're calm as could be. That's why some of the others tease you so mercilessly sometimes. They think you're made of stone, and they want to break in and touch the human feelings. They just don't know that when you seem most stony, that's when you're the most frightened and breakable.

Wishful thinking gives false gods to people who hunger for gods, but those who yearn for a world with no gods are no less likely to fall victim to their own wishful thinking.

I don't mind dying before you do. In fact, I rather prefer it that way.

Don't lie to me! Don't seem so normal when I know you have cut yourself off from me in your heart! If you can put on our affectionate closeness like a mask, then I'll never be able to take joy in it again.

Religion isn't always pretty. Especially viewed from the outside, by an unbeliever.