“The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.”

“Small things were important. Seconds were small things, and if you heaped enough of those on top of one another, they became a man's life.”

“In the end, all men die. How you lived will be far more important to the Almighty than what you accomplished.”

“One cannot seperate truth from actions...Physically inevitable or not, truth stands above all things. It is independant of who has the best army, who can deliver the longest sermons, or even who has the most priests. It can be pushed down, but it will always surface. Truth is the one thing you can never intimidate.”

“Pain los[es] its power when other things bec[o]me more important.”

“They say a man doesn't know himself until he faces death for the first time. . . I don't know about that. It seems to me that the person you are when you're about to die isn't as important as the person you are during the rest of your life. Why should a few moments matter more than an entire lifetime?”

“Her aunt Sol had once told Shai to smile at the worst insults and snap at the minor ones. That way, no man would know your heart.”