All life worth living is difficult, nobody promised us happiness; it is not a commodity you have earned, or shall ever earn. It is a by-product of brave living, and it never comes in the form we expect, or at the season we hoped for, or as the result of our planning for it.

Trust your happiness and the richness of your life at this moment. It is as true and as much yours as anything else that ever happened to you.

Life is a game of piquet played in a bramble bush in very bad weather.

I've been called a stylist until I really could tear my hair out. And I simply don't believe in style. The style is you.

No man can be explained by his personal history, least of all a poet.

Civilization, let me tell you what it is. First the soldier, then the merchant, then the priest, then the lawyer. The merchant hires the soldier and priest to conquer the country for him. First the soldier, he is a murderer; then the priest, he is a liar; then the merchant, he is a thief; and they all bring in the lawyer to make their laws and defend their deeds, and there you have your civilization!

All working, practical political systems, even those professing to originate in moral grandeur, are based upon and operate by contempt of human life and the individual fate.