But have you ever overheard two women discussing men? Men are crude liars, comparing their drabs, but women - I'd rather have [an] anatomist dissect me alive than to listen to the things the ladies say about us when they think they are alone.

But pain seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?

Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who had it.

The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.

A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.

Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you'll be so close as to be living inside each other's skins.

I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.