Khaled Hosseini

But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.

For you, a thousand times over.

I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...

And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.

When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.

Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.

It always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.

Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don't have to say anything.

It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.

They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.