Jeremy

“Mister Sunshine. The archangel Uriel.

His gaze was focused exclusively on Michael, and his expression was anguished.

'You need not do this,' he said, his voice low, urgent. 'You have given enough and more than enough already.'

'Uriel,' Michael said, nodding his head deeply. 'I know.'

The angel held up his hand. 'If you do this, I can take no action to protect you,' he said. 'And this creature will be free to inflict upon you such pain as even you could not imagine.'

A sudden, sunny smile lit Michael’s face. 'My friend ...'

Uriel blinked, and rocked slightly, as if the words had struck him with physical force.

'... thank you,' Michael continued. 'But I’m not the Carpenter who set the standard.”
― Jim Butcher, Skin Game

“He'd never been an optimist. He saw the world as it was, or he tried to. That was a problem, though, when the truth he saw was so terrible.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

“There’s power in the touch of another person’s hand. We acknowledge it in little ways, all the time. There’s a reason human beings shake hands, hold hands, slap hands, bump hands.

“It comes from our very earliest memories, when we all come into the world blinded by light and color, deafened by riotous sound, flailing in a suddenly cavernous space without any way of orienting ourselves, shuddering with cold, emptied with hunger, and justifiably frightened and confused. And what changes that first horror, that original state of terror?

“The touch of another person’s hands.

“Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else’s hand can ease pain and make things better.

“That’s power. That’s power so fundamental that most people never even realize it exists.”
― Jim Butcher, Skin Game

“There is no greater indication of youth, perhaps, than the desire for everything to be as it should.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings