All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

See obstacles as opportunities, Reinhold. See obstacles as inspirations.

Every outcome has its cause, and every predicament has its solution. Every lock its key.

You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history.

Only through the hottest fires can purification be achieved.

Madame Hébrard, the postmistress, slides an important-looking letter from Berlin into her underpants, takes it home, and starts her evening fire with it.

We all grew up before we were grown up

But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?”

they do as they’re told, they get scared, they move about with only themselves in mind.

Name me someone who does not.

Why bother to make music when the silence and wind are so much larger? Why light lamps when the darkness will inevitably snuff them?