“Two murders and an act of arson. Junior was being a bold boy this evening”

“The only way we'll be saved is if we save ourselves. Good people can't triumph over bad people just by being good; they have to act.”

“I've since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right, their telltale horns having grown inward to facilitate their disguise.”

“Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.”

“He once told me that an August evening was "as hot as three toads in a Cuisinart," a comparison that left me blinking two days later.”

“Or maybe they were just doing it for fun. A lark. Their religion is tolerant of extreme forms of recreation. Boys will be boys, after all, and sociopathic boys will be sociopathic.”

“On an individual level, the human condition changed day by day, even hour by hour, and while you were soaking in self-pity over a misfortune, you might miss an opportunity for a redeeming triumph. And for every act of inhumanity, the species managed to committ a hundred acts of kindness; so if you were the type to brood, you would be more sensible if you dwelt on the remarkable goodwill with which most people treated others even in a society where the cultural elites routinely mocked virtue and celebrated brutality.BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOONChapter 5”