Madeline Berner

“Attention words. A single word wasn't enough. Not even for a particular segment. The brain had defenses, filters evolved over millions of years to protect against manipulation. The first was perception, the process of funneling an ocean of sensory input down to a few key data packages worthy of study by the cerebral cortex. When data got by the perception filter, it received attention. And she saw now that it must be like that all the way down: There must be words to attack each filter. Attention words and then maybe desire words and logic words and urgency words and command words. This was what they were teaching her. How to craft a string of words that would disable the filters one by one, unlocking each mental tumbler until the mind's last door swung open.”
― Max Barry, Lexicon

“Your path will change. Your destiny never will."
"But what if I'm on the wrong path?"
"There is no wrong path. Not when it comes to destiny. There are only detours, you see.”
― Lauren Miller, Parallel

“Silence is a protective coating over pain.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars