Cobalt

“she had striven to make herself worthy of their love, shrinking deeper and deeper into herself in the hopes of one day becoming so inoffensive she would please them.”
― Lynn Messina, A Sinister Establishment

“Presumably, no, which was not shocking, for men were notoriously selfish, craving one thing only until it was in their grasp and then almost immediately desiring something else. They were supported in this endeavor by an ability to render their own needs noble—a sleight of hand summed up best by Richard Lovelace’s disingenuous feint in the poem “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars”: I could not love thee (Dear) so much, Lov’d I not Honour more.”
― Lynn Messina, A Lark's Conceit

“Fear is a self-inflicted wound before you’ve even started the fight.”
― Brady Moore, The Fourth Kinetic

“That was the trouble with humans—fear of the unknown could make them rash, taking action to destroy rather than to learn.”
― Bella Forrest, Finch Merlin and the Legend of the Luminary