Stephen

“The invisible people knew that happiness is not the natural state of mankind, and is never achieved from the outside in.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“Alexa and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness. They would not understand why people like him who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for for choice and certainty.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“They never said “I don’t know.” They said, instead, “I’m not sure,” which did not give any information but still suggested the possibility of knowledge.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah