Lee Child

No harm, no foul.

We all are looking for someone. That's the very essence of human nature, isn't it? It's an eternal quest.

Reality was whatever people said it was. If no one ever mentioned an event, then it had never happened. If no one ever mentioned a person, then that person had never existed.

One shot, one kill. That was the sniper's credo.

Rule one: Be on your feet and ready.
Rule two: Show them what they're messing with.
Rule three: Identify the ringleader.
Rule four: The ringleader is the one who moves first.
Rule five: Never back off.

True randomness is impossible for a human to achieve. There are always patterns.

You don't start fights but you sure as hell finish, and you don't lose either. The best way to lose was to assume it was over when it wasn't yet.

Feelings are different than facts.

Better safe than sorry.

Obedience without temptation is meaningless.

Truces are temporary. Call it an alliance. That's permanent.

This was American business, after all. Forcing down the wholesale price was the name of the game.

Except they had never had a fight. Not in the sense meant by people paid to fight or die. Pushing and shoving at the schoolyard gate or on the sidewalk outside the soda shop or late at night after a start-of-summer keg party was as far from fighting as two fat guys tossing lame spirals in the park were from the Superbowl.

The land is flat here and it's wintertime. There's nowhere to hide.