By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself sh… - Lev Grossman

I just thought of this—it’s the American university system. This is my new theory: the New Feudalism. You go to college and you get used to living like some kind of medieval overlord, with people waiting on you and everything, and it warps your mind. It happens to everybody. By the time you graduate you have all the personal habits of an aristocrat, and none of the money. No wonder you’re dysfunctional—you’re a twentieth-century office temp who’s channeling a nobleman in the British Raj.

Maybe he was lying," Peters said.
"Lie is a blow to the tyranny of fact," Hollis said….
"I think lies are good," he said. "People should lie more. Lies are like these little peepholes into a better world.

Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever."
"You can't just decide to be happy."
"No, you can't. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want?