I'd rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage.

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

It is so much easier to live placidly and complacently. Of course, to live placidly and complacently is not to live at all.

The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.

There's only one way to make a beginning, and that is to begin; and begin with hard work, and patience, prepared for all the disappoint­ment s.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

You are a being of infinite courage.

Courage is the antidote to danger.

You have to stand for something or you fall for everything.

There's more to this world than just people, you know.

Who you are, in truth, who everyone is, is whole and perfect and beautiful. And if that can be recognized, then it is possible that self-torture can stop!

You only die once, but you will be dead for a very long time.

Then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

Look as long as you can at the friend you love, no matter whether that friend is moving away from you or coming back toward you.

Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.