“Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.”

Alcohol tells truth, but its truth is not normal.

He had come to know quite thoroughly the world in which he lived. His outlook was bleak and materialistic. The world as he saw it was a fierce and brutal world, a world without warmth, a world in which caresses and affection and the bright sweetness of spirit did not exist.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

Life, in a sense, is living and surviving. And all that makes for living and surviving is good. He who follows the fact cannot go astray, while he who has no reverence for the fact wanders afar.

Limited minds can recognize limitations only in others.

The greatest of the arts is the conquering of men.

Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

Man rarely places a proper valuation upon his womankind, at least not until deprived of them.

The Law is a lie, and through it men lie most shamelessly.

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

His conclusion was that things were not always what they appeared to be. The cub’s fear of the unknown was an inherited distrust, and it had now been strengthened by experience. Thenceforth, in the nature of things, he would possess an abiding distrust of appearances.

Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen.

The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage.

Love cannot in its very nature be peaceful or content. It is a restlessness, an unsatisfaction. I can grant a lasting love just as I can grant a lasting unsatisfaction; but the lasting love cannot be coupled with possession, for love is pain and desire and possession is easement and fulfilment.

Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me.

If you fight with all your might, there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your corner.

Death is with you all the time; you get deeper in it as you move towards it, but it’s not unfamiliar to you. It’s always been there, so what becomes unfamiliar to you when you pass away from the moment is really life.

A bunch of miserable, angry people exploiting death.

Death meant little to me. It was the last joke in a series of bad jokes.

Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Even for those to whom life and death are equal jests. There are some things that are still held in respect.

If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.