“It’s a liberation to know that an act of spontaneous courage is yet possible in this world. An act that has something of unconditional beauty.”

If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.

Nothing is impossible that one desires with an indomitable will.

I’m inclined to think we are all ghosts-every one of us. It’s not just what we inherit from our mothers and fathers that haunts us. Its all kinds of old defunct theories, all sorts of old defunct beliefs, and things like that.

This is life! It can harden and it can exalt!

And what if I did run my ship aground; oh, still it was splendid to sail it!

The man-at-arms is the only man.

The younger generation will come knocking at my door.

It’s such sport with these heroes of finance: they are like beads on a string – when one slips off, all the rest follow.

To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?

The starving poet business is no good nowadays.

In great memories there lies the seed of growth.

The greatest victory is defeat.

The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population — the intelligent ones or the fools?

Money brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends.

To die in agony upon a cross Does not create a martyr; he must first Will his own execution.

I’m plotting revolution against this lie that the majority has a monopoly of the truth. What are these truths that always bring the majority rallying round? Truths so elderly they are practically senile. And when a truth is as old as that, gentlemen, you can hardly tell it from a lie.

I know there are some voices calling for a punitive deal that punishes Britain. That would be an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe, and it would not be the act of a friend.

There is a knowing in her, she hears them say, that makes her untamable. She has known since she was a child that she is observant in a way that makes them uncomfortable.

I know how to handle noise better than I can handle silence.

All he knew was chaos and this mortal world was obsessed with order

A war is still a war even if it is inside your head, did you know this?

In one book, CACHALOT, just for my own amusement, every character is based directly on someone I have known.

I know how to live with a blade and teach it not to make me bleed.

A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.