As a general rule, a reputation is built on manner as much as on achievement.

I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmostphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary.

It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.

For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence.

The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires.

The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells, too, by Jove! - breathe dead hippo, so as to speak, and not be contaminated. And there, don't you see? your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in - your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business.

I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace.