weary as water

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except myself, to injure me.

To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind, and you're hampered by not having any. The best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, is simply by spinning a penny. No - not so that chance shall decide the affair, while you're passively standing there moping; but the moment the penny is up in the air, you suddenly know what you're hoping.

The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge: fitter to bruise than polish.

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

A good friend will bail you out of jail, your best friend will be sitting there after bailing you out saying 'That was fucking awesome!'

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself.

The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future.

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

Revolutions are not improvised. They are not made at will by individuals, and not even by the most powerful associations. They come about through force of circumstances, and are independent of any deliberate will or conspiracy. They can be foreseen ... but never can their explosion be accelerated.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the spaces between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

Please subdue the anguish of your soul. Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain. The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

Beware the fury of the patient man.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.

The only gift is giving to the poor; All else is exchange.

Every day I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well.

Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.

The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.

if they give you ruled paper, write the other way.

A halo has to fall only a few inches to become a noose.

I have never been contained except I made the prison.

Said Smygo, the iconoclast of Zothique: Bear a hammer with thee always, and break down any terminus on which is written: 'So far shalt thou pass, but no further go.'

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.

What you are thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

Desires achieved increase thirst like salt water.

I contend that we are both athiests. I just believe in one fewer God than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them quite so much.

Everything we do is futile, but we must do it anyway.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

If you're already walking on thin ice, you might as well dance.

What luck for rulers that men do not think.

Be the change that you want to see in the world.

There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future.

If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

The greatest mistake you can make in this life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper.

A clever person solves a problem, A wise person avoids it.

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders, or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it.

The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annhiliation can that which is indestructible in us be found.

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis ad capul tuum saxum immane mittam.

Become who you are.

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jolier than the people who have to wait for them.

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed most.

Man must exist in a state of balance between risk and safety.

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

Communism is man's exploitation of man. Capitalism is just the opposite.