Life knows us not and we do not know life—-we don’t know even our own thoughts. Half the words we use have no meaning whatever and of the other half each man understands each word after the fashion of his own folly and conceit. Faith is a myth and beliefs shift like mists on the shore; thoughts vanish; words, once pronounced, die; and the memory of yesterday is as shadowy as the hope of tomorrow

The sky over Patusan was blood-red, immense, streaming like an open vein. An enormous sun nestled crimson amongst the treetops, and the forest below had a black and forbidding face.

The last thing a woman will consent to in a man whom she loves, or on whom she simply depends, is want of courage.

Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it by threats, persuasion, or bribes.

A nickname may be the best record of a success. That's what I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth.

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

One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse.