“You are far too cynical for someone your age.""Well people are disappointing!" Thorn said."Yes, but they are also complicated. I would wager there is something about him you do not know. It is the only thing we can ever say about people with absolute certainty: that we don't know the whole story.”

“The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;The books that people talk about we never can recall;And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all.”

“The biggest mistake we can make is to think that we've figured the whole thing out. The people I know who are the greatest skeptics, who are least certain about how the world and the universe works, are also the most intelligent.... Absolute certainty is only for stupid people. It requires a certain intelligence for us to realize how little we actually know.”

“You know what happens when you give a kid a calculator instead of teaching him math?""I think you need my help." I cross my arms. "You know what happens when you give a kid a calculator instead of teaching him math?"He tilts his head, his eyes fetchingly bright."Sure he can do math that way," I continue, "but then if you take the calculator from him, suddenly he can't do any math at all, because he'slearned to rely on the calculator. Your power lets you look at people and see exactly what it takes to make them tick. Or crumble. But withoutyour power, you don't get people.”

“Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn't judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behavior. People don't necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring glory to God or misrepresent His truth.”

“You and I are more alike than you think,” Alistair says.“I don't see that at all,” I say.“Besides the fact that we both lied about our names,” I add.”

“Your father and I will deal with him.”“What are you going to do?” I say.“We will talk to him.” I snort.“Yeah, that's going to work.”