“There’s a right thing to do,” Holden said.
“You don’t have a right thing, friend,” Miller said. “You’ve got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.”

“I try to do the right thing, Holden. But there are times when it’s not obvious what that is.”

“Politics is a lot like sex - if you want something, you have to ask for it, if they’re not doing it right you’ve got to speak up and show them and if you still don’t get what you want, then there is nothing wrong with doing it yourself.”

“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”

“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.”

“The first thing you’ve got to do is tell yourself that the shitheads are wrong…Not just a little bit wrong, but irremediably, absolutely, and endemically wrong. Nothing you can say or do will stop their being wrong. They’re damned to eternal wrongness, and that’s God’s will.”

“There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through.”

“Self-knowledge starts with understanding that you’ve got the single most important thing absolutely right – you are alive.”

““But at least you cared. At least you were ready to do something.”
“This little mess,” Auger said, “is all because of people who were ready to do something. People like me, who always know when they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe what we need is a few less of us.””

“You ought to be thankful for the little things
But little things are all you seem to give
You're always putting off what we can do today
Soap opera says you've got one life to live
Who's right, who's wrong?”