Cautionary Quotes

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.”
― Robert Frost

“Faith, humility, fanaticism, and arrogance walk the same path. Faith and humility seek to understand the way, fanaticism and arrogance assume they know the way.”
― Graeme Rodaughan, The Key of Ahknaton

“...remember that the danger that is most to be feared is never the danger we are most afraid of.”
― Andrew Lang, The Red Fairy Book

“The thing about embracing your own chaos is that it never becomes clear when you need to stop.”
― Trista Mateer, Aphrodite Made Me Do It

“If there is anything unique about the human animal, it is that it has the ability to grow knowledge at an accelerating rate while being chronically incapable of learning from experience.”
― John Gray

“Any man who has got himself set over others and don't have any responsibility to something bigger than him is a son of a bitch.”
― Oakley Hall, Warlock

“Sometimes it is best for men not to attempt to interfere with destiny. Our prayers can be answered in ways which we do not expect and do not welcome.”
― Wilbur Smith

“All peoples think they are forever," he growled softly. "They do not believe they will ever not be. The Sinnissippi were that way. They did not think they would be eradicated. But that is what happened. Your people, Nest, believe this of themselves. They will survive forever, they think. Nothing can destroy them, can wipe them so completely from the earth and from history that all that will remain is their name and not even that will be known with certainty. They have such faith in their invulnerability.
Yet already their destruction begins. It comes upon them gradually, in little ways. Bit by bit their belief in themselves erodes. A growing cynicism pervades their lives. Small acts of kindness and charity are abandoned as pointless and somehow indicative of weakness. Little failures of behavior lead to bigger ones. It is not enough to ignore the discourtesies of others; discourtesies must be repaid in kind. Men are intolerant and judgmental . They are without grace. If one man proclaims that God has spoken to him, another quickly proclaims that his God is false. If the homeless cannot find shelter, then surely they are to blame for their condition. If the poor do not have jobs, then surely it is because they will not work. If sickness strikes down those whose lifestyle differs from our own, then surely they have brought it on themselves.
Look at your people, Nest Freemark. They abandon their old. They shun their sick. They cast off their children. They decry any who are different. They commit acts of unfaithfulness, betrayal, and depravity every day. They foster lies that undermine beliefs. Each small darkness breeds another. Each small incident of anger, bitterness, pettiness, and greed breeds others. A sense of futility consumes them. They feel helpless to effect even the smallest change. Their madness is of their own making, and yet they are powerless against it because they refuse to acknowledge its source. They are at war with themselves, but they do not begin to understand the nature of the battle being fought."

-pages 96-97”
― Terry Brooks, Running with the Demon

“Be careful what you wish for. Especially out loud.”
― Nenia Campbell, Touched with Sight

“I wanted so badly to believe that being in Dain's service was an honor, that he was someone worth following. That's what comes of hungering for something: You forget to check if it's rotten before you gobble it down.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Are today's fears more or less founded than the fears of that time? When it comes to the future, we are just as blind as our fathers. Swiss and Swedes have their anti-nuclear shelters, but what will they find when they come out into the open? There are Polynesia, New Zealand, Tierra del Fuego, the Antarctic: perhaps they will remain unharmed. Obtaining a passport and entry visa is much easier than it was then, so why aren't we going? Why aren't 'we leaving our country? Why aren't we leaving "before"?”
― Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved

“Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.”
― Andrew Bonar

“Certainty of the path precedes the first misstep.”
― Graeme Rodaughan, The Key of Ahknaton

“No matter how long a log of wood remains in the river it does not become a crocodile”
― Jude Idada, Oduduwa - King of the Edos

“Ask a pig, sometime, about the trouble predicting the future from the past."

"I stared at him, trying to decide if he was joking. "I've been short on prognosticating pigs."

"Life is perfect for a pig," Ruc said. "Plenty of slops. A shed to keep off the rain. A good wallow. Every day for months a pig wakes up to the same perfect life. Sometimes for years. Then someone ties his hind legs together and cuts his throat while he squeals... The fact that my head's still attached at my neck doesn't mean no one's sharpening a knife.”
― Brian Staveley, Skullsworn

“Something has changed in the character of the younger generation in a way I do not fully understand, and certain aspects of this change are undeniably disturbing.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

“Snow is not a wolf in sheep's clothing - it is a tiger in lamb's clothing.”
― Matthias Zdarsky

“We had felt no joy in seeing Viena undone and the Germans broken, but rather anguish. Not compassion, but a larger anguish, which was mixed up with our own misery, with the heavy threatening sensation of an irreparable and definitive evil, which was present everywhere. Nestling like gangrene in the guts of Europe and the world. The seed of future harm.”
― Primo Levi, If This Is a Man • The Truce

“What you ardently seek to avoid, you shall bring forth.”
― Graeme Rodaughan, The Key of Ahknaton

“Proceed toward "success" with extreme caution.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“Yes, well, I'm not asking you to hide anything. Hiding won't help you. You can't very well hide from a pit, can you? You just need to avoid falling into it." - Brohan Madhrarigal”
― Gregory S. Close, In Siege of Daylight

“Beware of those who speak ill of others in your presence.....don't be surprised of what they say in your absence.”
― A.J. Garces

“Yes, I am your enemy, as I was in my other incarnations, but that is my nature, and it is something I cannot escape. As I am defeated today, I tell you to believe what you will. Just as you believe in yourself, your worst enemies believe in themselves”
― E.G.Kardos

“A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea.

(DUTCH PROVERB)”
― Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering

“What if offering advice you don't follow brings all the potential harm to yourself? It's a possibility. Your subconscious values your own words.”
― Saroj Aryal