15 Quotes by Trish Mercer

No one’s ever successfully insulted him, because he refuses to be insulted. People do their best, but Yung won’t even acknowledge the attempt of an affront.

Group pressure is also a fascinating process to watch. Given enough arguments, time, and stress, even the most resolute and determined man can be made fearful enough to completely reverse his ideals to conform with everyone else.

You can’t manipulate people who know how to think for themselves.

—fear comes only when you don’t have faith in the outcome. And boredom comes only when you believe there’s nothing new worth learning. I simply can’t understand how any of that will occur today.

But for some reason the Department believed all students should learn the exact same way and at the exact same time, demonstrating that no one in Instruction knew the first thing about children.

There’s discipline, Mahrree knew, and then there’s abuse. The first works, while the second never does. And some people, like Lemuel Thorne, had no idea there was even a difference.

That must be what power does to a man: erases what he knows and makes him remember only what services him at the moment.

Each person was in the power of the Creator, or could be turned over to be battered by the Refuser. Every soul was equal in the Creator’s eyes. That was comforting and troubling at the same time.

That’s precisely what the governing body should NOT do—manage every detail of their lives. We are not their meddling grandmothers; we exist to keep them safe so they can make their own decisions, resolve their own problems, and live their own lives as their conscience dictates. We are NOT to become that conscience.