Human life cannot be formless. We live by patterns. We move in comradeships. Conformity is evil when it distorts, flattens, and erases fruitful ways, strong ideas, natural identities; it is evil when it is a steamroller. But a man cannot escape being part of a milieu - and a recognizable part - unless he flees naked to a cave, never to return. The sensible thing is to use hard thinking to find the right way to live and then to live that way. What matters is living with dignity, with decency, and without fear.
Herman WoukThis is an excellent martini — sort of tastes like it isn't there at all, just a cold cloud.
Herman WoukWar is a business in which a lot of people watch a few people get killed and are damn glad it wasn't them.
Herman WoukThe American people are not cowardly. But, living in prosperous isolation, they have been the spoiled children of modern history.
Herman Wouk