why human beings despise what is beautiful and good, and seek to destroy the things they need the most

I love HBO productions, actually, like 'The Wire.'

A mountain you're plannin' on climbin' ain't the same as the one you ain't. It ain't so pretty.

If your words're true, they're armed.

My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?

She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman.

For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.