Jade and men are both shaped by harsh tools; be not unaware of sudden changes of fortune. - Andre Norton

Mrs. Clapp was some distance away, Jeremiah’s trophy laid across one knee, stroking the cat’s head and telling him what a brave, smart boy he was. Jeremiah accepted this praise complacently, with a feline’s estimate of his own worth.

Well, we don't know a lot, and most people don't want to learn more’n what's right before their eyes. You point out things that don’t fit into what they've always accepted, and they say it’s all your imagination and nothing like that is real.

You can’t play the role of thug all over the galaxy and not store up in the subconscious a fine line of private fears and remembered enemies.