“It is … impossible to keep one’s excellence in a little glass casket, like a jewel, to take it out whenever wanted.”

I consider Mr. Morphy the finest chess player who ever existed.

Attack! Always Attack!

He is far superior to any now living, and would doubtless have beaten Labourdonnais himself.

He never makes a mistake; but, if his adversary commits the slightest error, he is lost.

On the contrary, it can only be conserved by continuous and good practice.

In all his games with me, he has not only played, in every instance, the exact move, but the most exact.

It was a real character piece.

We are defined and controlled by all that we have not transcended.

The past is for learning from and letting go.

To have a spirit implies that you are spirit and that you are also something else.

Do not look at life’s long sorrow; see how small each moment’s pain.

I just said, “This is something to get on board with.”

I’ve come to understand that the best one can hope for as a human is to have a relationship with that emptiness where God would be if God were available, but God isn’t.

You know what you want to do, then you balance it against paying the rent.