Todd Wilhelm

“There is a darkness in you. In all of us, probably. Beasts we keep chained. Ordinary men have to keep the chains strong, for if we let the beast loose then society will turn upon us with fiery vengeance. Kings though...well, who is there to turn upon them? So the chains are made of straw. It is the curse of kings, Helikaon, that they can become monsters. And they invariably do.”
― David Gemmell, Shield of Thunder

“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.”
― Lysander Spooner

“A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.”
― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

“Out of a desire to clear the air, you might be the first to acknowledge what you perceive to be the mistakes you made, might be the first to apologize because you’ve been made to feel as if you are the flaw in the equation. A concession can allow you to remain plagued with shame-based thoughts like, Maybe I am making too much of this. I shouldn’t have made such a fuss. They don’t deserve this. After all, I could have done more to prevent it.”
― Wade Mullen, Something's Not Right: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse--and Freeing Yourself from Its Power