Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?

How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces...they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals-anything or anyone-but never themselves.

.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.

And Adam ruled, for he was the King. Until the day his will to be King deserted him. Then he died, food for a stronger. And the strongest was always the King, not by strength alone, but King by cunning and luck and strength together. Among the rats.

There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer

What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?