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50 Inspirational Dean Koontz Quotes That Will Restore Your Love Of Life

It will all be better in the end.
Holly Riordan
October 12, 2016
“Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life--and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.”
— Dean Koontz, Fear Nothing: A Novel (Christopher Snow)
Tagged: Friends, Friendship, Love
“Grief can destroy you -- or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. OR you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn't allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. But when it's over and you're alone, you begin to see that it wasn't just a movie and a dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can't get off your knees for a long time, you're driven to your knees not by the weight of the loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there, but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Hours: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: Grief, Relationships, Love, Life
“Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.”
— Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year: A Novel
Tagged: Loss, God, Pain, Learning
“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.”
— Dean Koontz, False Memory: A Novel
Tagged: Dogs, Animals, Pets
“Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy, or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.”
— Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye: A Novel
Tagged: Life, Meaning, kindness
“No matter how close we are to another person, few human relationships are as free from strife, disagreement, and frustration as is the relationship you have with a good dog. Few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. I also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously - that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown.”
— Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life
Tagged: Dogs, Pets, innocent, Relationships
“No one's life should be rooted in fear. We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by the beauty of the world, to seek truth and meaning, to acquire wisdom, and by our treatment of others to brighten the corner where we are.”
— Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy: A Novel
Tagged: Life, Fear, beauty, Wisdom
“If one's friends do not openly laugh at him, they are not in fact his friends.”
— Dean Koontz, Forever Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: Friends, Friendship, Laughter
“If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us.”
— Dean Koontz, Seize the Night: A Novel (Christopher Snow)
Tagged: Love, Friendships, mortal
“There are no explanations for human evil. Only excuses.”
— Dean Koontz, Intensity: A Novel
Tagged: Evil, excuses, explanations
“When we hope, we usually hope for the wrong thing.”
— Dean Koontz, Brother Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: Hope, Wrong, Mistakes
“Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.”
— Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life
Tagged: Dogs, Pets, Life
“We are not strangers to ourselves, we only try to be.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: Strangers, Distance, ourselves
“No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make.”
— Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy: A Novel
Tagged: Happiness, Choices, Power, Decisions
“Human beings are such knotted, desperate pieces of work--it's a rare thing to know one completely, to the core, and still love him.”
— Dean Koontz, Your Heart Belongs to Me: A Novel
Tagged: humanity, Love, Desperate
“It will all be better in the end and if it is not better then it must not be the end yet.”
— Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye: A Novel
Tagged: better, Endings, Life
“Given enough time, you could convince yourself that loneliness was something better, that it was solitude, the ideal condition for reflection, even a kind of freedom.”
— Dean Koontz, The Good Guy: A Novel
Tagged: Time, Loneliness, Freedom
“This world, which has the potential to be Eden, is instead the hell before Hell. In our arrogance, we have made it so.”
— Dean Koontz, Forever Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: Eden, Hell, Arrogance, humanity
“The most identifying trait of humanity is our ability to be inhumane to one another.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: humanity, inhumane, mean
“When we make our own misery we sometimes cling to it even when we want so bad to change, because misery is something we know. The misery is comfortable.”
— Dean Koontz, One Door Away from Heaven: A Novel
Tagged: Misery, Change, comfortable
“Change isn't easy. Changing the way you live means changing the way you think, means changing what you believe about life. That's hard.”
— Dean Koontz, One Door Away from Heaven: A Novel
Tagged: Change, Life, Beliefs
“The things we worry about the most are never the things that bite us. The sharpest teeth always take their nip of us when we are looking the other way.”
— Dean Koontz, Forever Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: worry, Stress, surprise, Shock
“Evil itself may be relentless. I will grant you that, but love is relentless too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts - and can defeat - even the most relentless force of all, which is time.”
— Dean Koontz, Relentless: A Novel
Tagged: Evil, Family, Faith, Time, Relentless
“We yearn for tomorrow and the progress that it represents. But yesterday was once tomorrow, and where was progress in it? Or we yearn for yesterday, for what was or what might have been. But as we are yearning, the present is becoming the past, so the past is nothing but our yearning for second chances.”
— Dean Koontz, Brother Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: tomorrow, yesterday, Second Chances, Progress
“Darkness dwells within even the best of us. In the worst of us, darkness not only dwells but reins.”
— Dean Koontz, Strange Highways
Tagged: Darkness, Evil, humanity
“Fate isn’t one straight road… there are forks in it, many different routes to different ends. We have the free will to choose the path.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
Tagged: Fate, Choices, Free Will, Decisions
“People who go to work every day, make sacrifices to raise families, and get through life without hurting other people if they can help it--those are the real heroes.”
— Dean Koontz, Winter Moon: A Novel
Tagged: Heroes, Family, Work, Sacrifice
“Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel
Tagged: beauty, Perfection, damaged, emotions
“Maybe when all was said and done, the imagination was the most powerful of all weapons. It was the imagination of the human race that had allowed it to dream of a life beyond cold caves and of a possible future in the stars.”
— Dean Koontz, Winter Moon: A Novel
Tagged: Imagination, Power, Dreams
“Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.”
— Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
Tagged: polite, Life, Conflict, kindness