“Not that complicated. I think I'm in love with you, Essie. But I also think you're not ready. I shouldn't have sprung it on you like that, so I decided to take it at your speed.”
“Brave is being scared and doing what needs to be done anyway”
“If we go ahead with it...if you say yes...how do we tell our children that we fell in love after I kidnapped you?”
“Life was so much easier back when I was selfish.”
“...My choice wasn't supposed to include you coming along and getting killed, too, and when I'm probably going to die anyway, you shouldn't waste your feelings on me.
You're brilliant, Essie, but you're still dim on a few things. Feelings can't be wasted. Knowing they're real for however long they last makes them worth having.”
“Dimwit Essie queen Essie, he said. Essie mother proud.”
“When people in authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters—first and foremost—how they behave. This is called the “principle of legitimacy,” and legitimacy is based on three things. First of all, the people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice—that if they speak up, they will be heard. Second, the law has to be predictable. There has to be a reasonable expectation that the rules tomorrow are going to be roughly the same as the rules today. And third, the authority has to be fair. It can’t treat one group differently from another. All good parents understand these three principles implicitly. If you want to stop little Johnnie from hitting his sister, you can’t look away one time and scream at him another. You can’t treat his sister differently when she hits him. And if he says he really didn’t hit his sister, you have to give him a chance to explain himself. How you punish is as important as the act of punishing itself.”
“I tell her everything I wish I had ever known.”
“Instead of being wakened to the sound of birdsong, like princesses in books, I was wakened to the sound of Rommel shrieking as Fat Louie beat him senseless for getting into his bowl of Fancy Feast.”
“As others might prepare for an exam whose subject matter is unknown to them, so I must study, cram, for every conversation with my folks.”
“Some people get more of a chance to show who they are. Other people never get the chance.”
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