Top 500 Dean Koontz Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.”

— Dean Koontz

52. “Grief is a healthy emotion, and it’s healthy to embrace it. By accepting loss, we clarify our values and the meaning of our lives.”

— Dean Koontz

53. “If one’s friends do not openly laugh at him, they are not in fact his friends.”

— Dean Koontz

54. “Perseverance is impossible if we don’t permit ourselves to hope.”

— Dean Koontz

55. “Pain can be endured and defeated only if it is embraced. Denied or feared, it grows.”

— Dean Koontz

56. “Books are packaged dreams.”

— Dean Koontz

57. “Not funny ha ha, funny weird.”

— Dean Koontz

58. “Guilt is a tireless horse. Grief ages into sorrow, and sorrow is an enduring rider.”

— Dean Koontz

59. “Modesty is related to diffidence, diffidence is related to shyness, Shyness is a synonym for timidity, timidity is a characteristic of the meek, the meek do not inherit the Earth, they serve those who are self confident and self assertive.”

— Dean Koontz

60. “The most identifying trait of humanity is our abilty to be inhumane to one another.”

— Dean Koontz

61. “Writing a novel is like making love, but it’s also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it’s like making love while having a tooth pulled.”

— Dean Koontz

62. “What has been is no more. Change has come.”

— Dean Koontz

63. “Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.”

— Dean Koontz

64. “I would not cry. I do not cry. How bitter do you risk becoming by swallowing too many tears?”

— Dean Koontz

65. “Your mind always does worse things than people can show in a movie.”

— Dean Koontz

66. “From time to time, I do consider that I might be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic, however, I am always quick to dismiss any doubts about my sanity.”

— Dean Koontz

67. “I was looking forward to having a halo. It would make such a convenient reading lamp.”

— Dean Koontz

68. “The whisper of the dusk is night shedding its husk.”

— Dean Koontz

69. “I really believe that everyone has a talent, ability, or skill that he can mine to support himself and to succeed in life.”

— Dean Koontz

70. “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

71. “Pain is a gift. Humanity, without pain, would know neither fear nor pity.”

— Dean Koontz

72. “One door away from heaven And the key is ours to lose. One door away from heaven But oh, the entry dues.”

— Dean Koontz

73. “You reap what you sow, and if you reap kindness it is because of the seeds of greater kindness you’ve sown so broadly.”

— Dean Koontz

74. “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

75. “A scar is not always a flaw. Sometimes a scar may be redemption inscribed in the flesh, a memorial to something endured, to something lost.”

— Dean Koontz

76. “We are not born to wait. We are born to do.”

— Dean Koontz

77. “Fear is a poison produced by the mind, and courage is the antidote stored always ready in the soul.”

— Dean Koontz

78. “Despair is good. Despair can be the nadir of one life and the starting point of an ascent into another, better one.”

— Dean Koontz

79. “The ineffable would not be ineffable if it could be described.”

— Dean Koontz

80. “A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes.”

— Dean Koontz

81. “We are an arrogant species, full of terrible potential, but we also have a great capacity for love, friendship, generosity, kindness, faith, hope, and joy.”

— Dean Koontz

82. “The process, not the final achievement, is what it’s all about.”

— Dean Koontz

83. “No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make.”

— Dean Koontz

84. “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

85. “What looks tragic might be comic on second consideration, and what is comic might bring tears in time.”

— Dean Koontz

86. “His blue eyes were seas where sorrow sailed.”

— Dean Koontz

87. “Some lives, conducted with grace, are beautiful arcs bridging this world to eternity.”

— Dean Koontz

88. “When we hope, we usually hope for the wrong thing.”

— Dean Koontz

89. “I think dogs were put in this world to remind humanity that love, loyalty, devotion, courage, patience, and good humor are the qualities that, with honesty, are the essence of admirable character and the very definition of a life well lived.”

— Dean Koontz

90. “Every eye sees its own special vision; every ear hears a most different song. In each man’s troubled heart, an incision would reveal a unique, shameful wrong.”

— Dean Koontz

91. “Even in chaos, there is order, purpose, and strange meaning that invites – but often thwarts – our investigation and our understanding.”

— Dean Koontz

92. “Please, don’t torture me with cliches. If you’re going to try to intimidate me, have the courtesy to go away for a while, acquire a better education, improve your vocabulary, and come back with some fresh metaphors.”

— Dean Koontz

93. “He is different, and there will be many people you love who will be unhappy with you. You don’t want them to feel you’ve dishonored them. Yes, I know how it is. But life is short. A chance for great happiness doesn’t come along all that often.”

— Dean Koontz

94. “The opportunity to love a dog and to treat it with kindness is an opportunity for a lost and selfish heart to be redeemed. They are powerless and innocent, and it is how we treat the humblest among us that surely determines the fate of our souls.”

— Dean Koontz

95. “We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness.”

— Dean Koontz

96. “I see dead people. But, then by God, I do something about it!”

— Dean Koontz

97. “Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.”

— Dean Koontz

98. “In this brave new digital world, reality is plastic, and your identity is whatever you wish it to be. As is your future: Wish it, build it, live it.”

— Dean Koontz

99. “Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one’s cow has exploded.”

— Dean Koontz

100. “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