“Sometimes it's easier not to try to understand people.”

“...each of us from the seance stood alone. Like so many pillars of salt, we had tried to look back and failed. And in the eyes of the others who shared the pale, flat sky with us, there was sometimes suspicion, sometimes a little fear.”

“Dates are convenient hooks on which we can hang our memories of events. But history is all about people - people like you and me who did things to change the world.”

“To my way of thinking, the slavery issue is just an excuse to allow some people to do hateful things and feel righteous about it.”

“I know why people die of hopelessness. It comes on like a thick blanket, covering your thoughts, your confidence, creeping into your mind and filling the corners. I lie in the dark, suffocating under horrible dispare, wishing I were dead. I sleep, then wake, then sleep. The sleep is filled with monstrous dreams that attack, cry out, and vanish, leaving me once more awake and staring into the darkness. Help me! My mind is screaming, but there is no one to hear.”

“There are 2 ways of crying-on the outside or from the inside-and I've been crying on the inside most of my life.”

“Any other mislabeled underachievers around here? Speak up now or suffer the consquences," he said. Emily blinked. "other mislabeled underachievers?" That's correct," Maxwell said. "I, for one, have definitely been mislabeled. I am not an underachiever. I simply refuse to waste my time on subjects which will be of no use to me in my future, such as math and science.”