"And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions."

- Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

#Discworld

"There were people who’d steal money from people. Fair
enough. That was just theft.
But there were people who, with one easy word, would steal the humanity from people. That was something else."

- Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
#Discworld

"But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible.
But this much I can tell you, we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it *morality*."

- The Dragon on human nature

(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards)

#Discworld

"And if you did it for a good reason, you’d do it for a bad one. You couldn’t say “we’re the good guys” and do bad-guy things."

- Vimes on policing & excuses, part three.

(Terry Pratchett, THUD!)

#Discworld

"He asked you to shoot at people who weren’t shooting back,” growled Vimes, striding forward.

[...] “They are throwing STONES, Sarge,” said Colon.

“So? Stay out of range. They’ll get tired before we do." "

-Sam Vimes on policing, again.

(Terry Pratchett, Night Watch)

#Discworld

"...but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?"

- Terry Pratchett, Snuff
#Discworld

I Will Fear No Evil
That's the novel in which I learned about rare blood types and also that sex is better from the female POV.

I remember reading a diatribe against the working mom at the end of Podkayne of Mars and thinking I couldn't understand it exactly but it didn't matter because the story was good.

Whatever his faults, Heinlein got me through some miserable times in Jr High. I remain grateful for the escapes.