It is probably unacceptable to say that pacifists should be
hung from the lampposts, but it is perhaps slightly more acceptable for
pacifists to say that those who say so should be strung up there instead.
Dedicated seekers of worldly-wisdom should understand one
thing: the juiciest morsels are all found under rocks.
Fortunately, failure teaches you who your friends are and
where your enemies dwell. Unfortunately, if it doesn’t teach you any better
than to lean this then it’s not worth the effort.
Almost all effective ways of avoiding making a fool of
oneself begins, initially, by asking oneself why one does it.
It is in the nature of work that “it must be done”, or else,
in being curious about why not, people will ask you why.
Sometimes it is necessary to find something to fight for,
and such thoughts of “death or glory” should always start with oneself.
Within the system the system is there to be used, and it is
also there to be maintained in use. This is good news for the system and the people
who use the system, because if it were not maintained in use then it wouldn’t
work.
We should not wish to inflict our more intimate failures
upon other people if we can help it; after all, they have their own to worry
about.
It is emotionally easing, knowing that nobody gives a damn
what you do so long as you do it elsewhere, to say nothing of being spiritually
enlightening.
There is an old phrase, “Beware of what you wish for, you
might get it.” This means nothing to those who don’t understand it, but everything
to those who do.
It’s unusual to stand upon the principle of un-principality,
but if one stands on one leg and juggles with one’s words at the same time,
then perhaps it’s not so odd after all.
Suicide is not driven by a lack of faith in the future; it
is driven by the conviction that the future is unalterable.
There is generally “not much to mind” in the “civilized”
beliefs of another person, and as much as one’s own, although, generally, this
doesn’t make his beliefs any more true either.
It is not the optimist that attempts to jump a chasm in a
single bound, it is the pessimist who has been pushed too far.
