When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.

The difference between stupid and intelligent people - and this is true whether or not they are well-educated - is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.

This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination.

You should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that 'Diax's Rake.

To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.

Any property that's open to common use gets destroyed. Because everyone has incentive to use it to the max, but no one has incentive to maintain it.

See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places.

Constable Moore had reached the age when men can subject their bodies to the worst irritations - whisky, cigars, woolen clothes, bagpipes - without feeling a thing or, at least, without letting on.

And it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all.

The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent.

Gold is the corpse of value.

The world is a wonderful place. What goes around comes around. Please help others to the best of your ability. In the long run you may be helping yourself only.

A writer sets up his own amazing experiment: his work of fiction.

His tongue swirls against my skin, and I gasp. His voice rough with passion, he rasps, "You're living fire. I burn.

Gift like genius I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains.

It doesn't matter who likes you or doesn't like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.

There is only consciousness. There is no individual apart from consciousness who is conscious.

A wine shop was open and I went in for some coffee. It smelled of early morning, of swept dust, spoons in coffee-glasses and the wet circles left by wine glasses.

The literary scene is a kind of Medusa’s raft, small and sinking, and one’s instinct when a newcomer tries to clamber aboard is to step on his fingers.

Wars should be fought with words, not bombs, not weapons. And calm words. I think that wars should be fought over a chessboard and a cup of something to drink.

Every woman has to have something which singles her out, which catches the eyes, which makes her the center of attention. I am going to be french.