26 Dean Koontz Quotes That Prove Even The Darkest Writing Can Be Beautiful

Like all of us in this storm between birth and death, I can wreak no great changes on the world, only small changes for the better, I hope, in the lives of those I love.

Sometimes there is no darker place than our thoughts, the moonless midnight of the mind.

From time to time, I do consider that I might be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic, however, I am always quick to dismiss any doubts about my sanity.

We are not strangers to ourselves, we only try to be.

I am twenty years old. To a world-wise adult, I am little more than a child. To any child, however, I am old enough to be distrusted, to be excluded forever from the magical community of the short and beardless.

Language can’t describe reality. Literature has no stable reference, no real meaning. Each reader’s interpretation is equally valid, more important than the author’s intention. In fact, nothing in life has meaning. Reality is subjective. Values and truths are subjective. Life itself is a kind of illusion. Blah, blah, blah, let’s have another scotch.

Inaction counted as a choice.

Pain can be endured and defeated only if it is embraced. Denied or feared, it grows in perception if not in reality. The best response to terror is righteous anger, confidence in ultimate justice, a refusal to be intimidated.

They never learn. The smarter they are, the dumber they get.

Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.

Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton.

Wealth is power, and power is the only thing about which contemporary culture cares.

No one can tell you what your heart should feel.

In our age, self-indulgence and self-destruction, rather than self-sacrifice, are the foundations for new heroic myths.

Most Universities are no longer temples of knowledge, but of power, and true moderns worship there.

Without trust, there can be no tranquil resting of the mind… there can be no belief. No belief in kindness. Or integrity. In anything.

I don’t mean to imply that I’m afraid of death. I’m just not ready to go out on a date with him.

The snow did not even whisper its way to earth, but seemed to salt the night with silence.

Grief is a healthy emotion, and it’s healthy to embrace it. By accepting loss, we clarify our values and the meaning of our lives.

Ignorance isn’t bliss, but sometimes ignorance makes it possible for us to sleep at night.

Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.

We are not born to wait. We are born to do.

The saddest thing in the world was that human beings, for all their ardent striving and desire, could never achieve physical, emotional, or intellectual perfection. The species was doomed to imperfection; it thrashed forever in despair or denial of that fact.

We may lack riches, but the greatest fortune is what lies in our hearts.

There is nothing fatherly about time and what it does to us, either.