“figures don't lie, liars figure”

“Men are liars. We'll lie about lying if we have to. I'm an algebra liar. I figure two good lies make a positive. ”

“I thought of the parable of the prodigal son. We had made merry for the beloved child's return too - but what happens when the beloved child doesn't say she's sorry? The parable doesn't talk about that. Jesus figures of course you're sorry. Jesus, I thought, you blew it. Not everybody is sorry.”

“Well we are nothing if not re-inventive. With every life experience we learn what to not do ever again and how to adapt to our current situations. We are always learning about ourselves and changing. I seriously don’t know anyone that has it all figured out, and if there is I want to punch them in the face.”

“But that pain is then inflicted onto other people, often many other people, all because we lack the courage to stand up and be accountable for all the things both good and bad, we have done in our lives. So by lying, that pain, rather than staying where it belongs, with the person who has done something wrong, is handed out to the innocent. To be a liar therefore is to be a coward.”

“Mom actually said that?" Cassie's face shown with happiness. "She always hated my math!""Nah," Martin said. "She was just being that way for you. She thought it was what you needed to hear. If parents told us what they really think about stuff, we could figure them out like regular people.”

“This wish to satisfy someone greater than the Self, to be found acceptable, to belong at last, is a struggle familiar to many psychotherapy patients. In their lives they waste themselves on wondering how they are doing, on trying to figure out the expectations of others so that they can become someone in the eyes of others. They try to be practical, to be reasonable, to figure it all out in their heads. It is as though if only they could get the words straight in their heads, if only they could find the correct formula, then everything else in their lives would be magically straightened out. They are sure there is a right way to do things, though they have not yet found it. Someone in authority must know...It is as thought if it were discovered that two and two really did not equal four (but five), then at that moment all over the world every machine would stop operating, all of the lights would go out. (110)”