It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

He looked at the book, took my name, and consulted his records. Then he informed me I had been lost at sea and was dead. Under the circumstances, he could not possibly give me any money... Even the fact that he was dealing with someone who had been dead for several days failed to awaken interest in his official heart.

My mother used to say, 'He who angers you, conquers you!' But my mother was a saint.

Memories do not always behave in an orderly way, but bloom, as it were, erratically.

A measure of victory has been won, and honors have been bestowed in token thereof. But honours fade or are forgotten, and monuments crumble into dust. It is the battle itself that matters - and the battle must go on.

O sleep, O gentle sleep, I thought gratefully, Nature's gentle nurse.

His response was remarkable for its irrelevance, if for nothing else.