Quotes from Douglas E. Richards

Matt Griffin worked on the problem for an hour while Desh looked on patiently. As it neared lunchtime, Desh offered to go for takeout, an offer that Griffin readily accepted. Desh returned thirty-five minutes later carrying a paper sack containing a number of white, garden-variety Chinese takeout boxes and knocked on the door.

but with a man whose entire body was paralyzed. Well, all except for his penis, which enabled them to have three children, although the thought picture of how this was accomplished wasn't something on which she liked to dwell.

POLITICS (noun): Poly, meaning "many" plus Tics, meaning "blood-sucking parasites." —Larry Hardiman "I believe that any politician who comes to power, in part, through his skill in debate and public speeches, who is agile in handling questions at news conferences, with a glistening TV or radio image, has the conversational talents to be a natural liar." —Paul Ekman, Telling Lies

She could remain a prisoner for life, or I could end her now. Was keeping her a prisoner forever really the compassionate choice? Or would letting her die now be a mercy,

Five thousand! The biggest loss since 9/11.

He had been imprisoned inside the least secure of the residences, and it was deserted at this late hour, as expected.

Sun Tzu thousands of years earlier: All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; and when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

Intuition is just your subconscious putting together subtle clues and coming to a conclusion that your conscious mind hasn't quite reached.

If I claim that an invisible giant hamster is hovering above me, I'm a lunatic. If I sense the spirit of God hovering above me, I'm simply a spiritual being.

After all, kill one man and you're considered a murderer. Wipe out all life on an entire planet, with the exception of the occupants of a wooden ark, and you're considered a god.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. " —Arthur Schopenhauer

a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for the good of his country.

holding cell Brad and Tessa were in,

It's been said that history is told by the victors.

We had to sacrifice for our children

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." —J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb upon seeing the first test detonation

To this day, a delicate balance of pure selfishness in some respects and pure selflessness in others is hardwired into our genes. For the sake of discussion, let's use extremes. Call this selfishness sociopathy. Call this selflessness altruism.

Neville Chamberlain, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in a letter.

Politics, noun: [Poly 'many' + tics 'blood-sucking parasites']

Chad could illicit the responses

Consciousness is a quantum effect. Even your scientists have begun to realize this.

All I know is that everything around us is astonishing. Impossible. We live in a universe so finely tuned for complex chemistry and life that the odds against it are greater than those of winning a thousand lotteries in a row. In a universe filled with exquisite microorganisms, voracious black holes, and trillions of stars, each of which can fit a million or more Earths inside. How can we possibly think that any view of God or creation can capture more than the tiniest hint of this reality?

creates endless permutations and combinations

Jenna carefully removed the tiny stick, roughly the size of her thumb, not surprisingly, since these storage units were also commonly referred to as thumb drives. These devices could have been downsized further, but the tinier an object the easier it was to lose, so this size had become fairly standard.