Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.

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.

Start a revolution. Love thy neighbor.

The sword of destiny has two edges. You are one of them.

Error sometimes supplies the surprise that makes life interesting.

Sometimes it pays not to be interested in what happened but in what did not happen.

Most of us float with the river and there are a few people who move the river. Robert DeNiro is definitely one of them.

The atmosphere of officialdom would kill anything that breathes the air of human endeavour, would extinguish hope and fear alike in the supremacy of paper and ink.

As you get older, things conk out. It's a bit like a car. As long as it's something the mechanics can fix, you can chug on for a few more thousand miles.

Lonely people console themselves with self-absorption or curiosity.

I'm going to ride the wave.

That which makes you want more money is the same as that which makes the plant grow; it is life seeking fuller expression.