My daddy's response [to fear of being poor] was to never talk about money or what might happen if it ran out.
Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.
What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle.
Come to a book as you would come to an unexplored land. Come without a map. Explore it, and draw your own map. . . . A book is like a pump. It gives nothing unless first you give to it.
The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.
The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there. . . and still on your feet.
We must now examine whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones. I think it's clear already that this is so, but we must look into it further, since the argument concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we ought to live.
What's worse: to be idle while someone dies, or to be exiled and empty-handed?
I'm enamored of any person, a young person, a lesbian, straight, gay guy who wants to go over and kill bad guys for me and my family. That blows me away.
Tales From Topographic Oceans is like a woman's padded bra.