Books are the perfect Time Machine. By the simple act of opening a book you can, in an instant, be travelling up a jungle river without once being bitten by mosquitoes, or you can almost die of thirst in the desert while holding a cold drink in your hand, or dine in the finest restaurants and never have to worry about paying the bill, or ride the wild country of our western frontier and never worry about losing your scalp to a raiding party.

Dogma is invariably wrong, as knowledge is always in a state of transition.

After a few days, I mused, I would have no trouble. Whoever heard of a revolution of fat men?

To exist is to adapt, and if one could not adapt, one died and made room for those who could.

I do not think much of ages. People are people. What does it matter how old or young they are? It is a category, and I do not like categories. It is a sort of pigeonhole or a label.

Knowledge is awareness, and to it there are many paths, not all of them paved with logic.

Any man can shoot a gun, and with practice he can draw fast and shoot accurately, but that makes no difference. What counts is how you stand up when somebody is shooting back at you.