I have to win this now, and for all time, or I’ll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse.

No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing.

Ulysses, obviously. It was an elaborate prank, and our supposed intellectual elite continue to fall for it.

Personal affection is a luxury you can have only after all your enemies are eliminated. Until then, everyone you love is a hostage, sapping your courage and corrupting your judgment.

I'll have that someday, thought Peter. Someone who'll kiss me good-bye at the door. Or maybe just someone to put a blindfold over my head before they shoot me. Depending on how things turn out.

I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.

If he was a good man, how could he leave me? So he must not be a good man. But if he isn't good, then why does it hurt so much to lose him?