If you can work towards understanding something through knowledge, then you won’t have to run away from it in complete ignorance.

Do it all with a smile and a wink and you’ll always be harder to pin down to all those who expect no less than that from you.

Even continued negativity can be strength while catering for the opinions of those who do not expect it, even from you.

One should never base one’s own life upon another man’s vision—he can’t see any further than his own nose.

Only a fool waits for permission to live his life the way he wants to, for he’ll never get it.

Don’t ever get stuck emotionally in what sexual moralists like to call the, “So what?” diathesis.

Never forget to nod at the nodding-noddies, as (in mutual recognition) they subsequently like to nod back.

To become “so tired of it all” is another effective way of avoiding the sort of matter that aggravates you, right here and now.

Dirty tricks are “dirty tricks,” but sly jokes always come along with “a nice touch.”

Laziness is not doing what you want to do for your own sake it is doing what you don’t want to do for nobody’s sake.

Unfortunately, we cannot be wise all the time, as that would simply continue to be foolish.

It is no shame, being an autodidactic; at heart, almost everybody is to some degree or another, although he usually doesn’t like to admit it.

Knowing too much can be just as much a fault as knowing too little, if the consequences are essentially the same.

Showing magnanimity to those conquered by life must always be a matter of good manners, and not quite necessity.

Conceit blinds us; we are bound to fail to see where it would lead us in the end.

You know who you are as well as any other person does, when you find out how it really is quick enough.

Since what is important to you is important enough for that at least, then don’t bother to “give it up” for something else.

Problems never change; only your views on them alter.

Half-believing in a lie being told can be another way of stepping away from continuing with what is another choice of actions, but time passes anyway.

Once, we were not only part of our possibilities, we were also fast becoming part of other facts as well, but perhaps we did not notice it in time to make much of a difference.

The tragedy of humanity is that we learn things too late, and so in learning them at least learn that.

Do not seek to impose upon another man over an irrelevance, as he may not appreciate it as much as you do.

Losing one’s balance occasionally suggests that one has had some in the first place, which is something that can never last.

Life is all about appreciating the subtle nuances; if you can get that right you won’t be so bothered with the details.

Someone else’s issues are never important enough to concern oneself over, unless one chooses to make them one’s own by mistake.

Being told, “you shouldn’t be here,” certainly puts you in a place where you wouldn’t want to be, but at least you deserved it.

Regardless of the alliances you choose to make, the ones you don’t choose to make are much more tenacious.

Manage to tell the people what they want to hear, when they want to hear it, and you won’t have to tell them anything else for the rest of your life.

Perhaps, the most irritating thing about double entendre is that, perhaps, there isn’t any.

One must learn how to bother people selectively; after all, one would not wish to bother them all at once.

Nothing is so irksome as to be condemned by another person, and then, perhaps, to begin to think that he or she may be right after all.

The truth remains a lie only until it remains unchallenged, after that you may do with it as you wish.

You should be wary of those who don’t owe you anything, as frequently, they don’t, and are persistent about doing it as well.

What is essential? To be able to laugh at oneself for thinking that it is essential to be able to laugh at oneself.

Being fooled is part of the course; what you do with that sort of foolish information is entirely your own concern.

There is not much room for morality in our darker dreams, but there is still enough room for disgust on waking up.

Humour, to be acceptable, must be unacceptable, which is probably why it seems so funny to the uninitiated.

As social glue in a sane society, humour must be acceptable to everybody who finds it funny, or else it isn’t and so becomes something else.

Never assume that you are always entitled to a valid answer, as the only valid answer you are always entitled to get is wrong.

Wanting to be as you would like to be is no indication of how you are.

One should always expect the unexpected, or at least be prepared to expect it.

One thing is certain: one should not wish to get up in the morning solely to examine one’s emotional scars.

For the man who could not be bothered there is always one solution: bother him over it.

What you are is what you are not, although that is not what you cannot be.

“The outsider”, be careful of him: he’s not “one of us.”

Sanity is balance in a world of sensual impressions balanced precariously upon the point of normalcy; either that, or else (when performed on a daily basis) it is all a bit more mundane, and then nobody bothers to worry about it much.

The lives of inferior beings must seem so unimportant; which, partly at least, is why they must also seem so inferior as well.

Being reticent with someone keeps him in his place, but doing so doesn’t necessarily tell him where to get off as well, for that we must try harder.

To be too quiet in not acceptable behaviour in good company, as it says things about you that you’d rather remain unsaid.

Why bother telling someone what is so isn’t what he thinks is so? As that is the sort of basic misunderstanding which, simply through his own freedom of choice, naturally hobbles him most effectively, and so is his problem, not yours, unless you make it so.

It is a great eye-opener to forget what you’ve just read, as then you can go back and read it again and be much more sure of your boredom, confusion and ignorance than you were before you began.

Understand the concept of greed and you have something there that you can take away with you from it which is just for you, but nobody else.

Human life is monkey-magic in a monkey-puzzle tree; there is no other reasonable explanation.

Introducing us to ourselves, I thought: “Right monkeys!”

Humour brings the low, high, and the high, low, but not necessarily in that order.

The first constructive thing most nice people will do when your presence bothers them slightly is to tell you to go away swiftly—and rightly so!

We laugh most heartily at other people’s problems because our own are more serious to us, and so aren’t so funny as all that. But somehow, that all sounds much more democratic.

If ever you need a helping hand in the jungle of forgotten dreams, they’ll hand you “the monkey’s paw” for your troubles.

Only the true authoritarian knows what a powerful tool he holds in his hands.

In the midst of plenty someone is always starving; however, you can’t possibly blame him much for that.

Probably the most irritating mistake to make while in a hurry is the one that we have made most pains to avoid in hurrying.

To think up an original thought is to step on the toes of someone who has been tiptoeing around there before, but just couldn’t have seen it coming.

When you’re not paying attention most people will love to muck about with your time, but while it’s hard to catch them at it they do it none the less.

What can be said about not being able to understand what needs to be understood because we don’t know what it means, except to say, “That’s enough of that today”?

What can one say after one says, “it was meant to be,” other than to say, “I guess so”?

There’s an infinite amount of things one can choose to do, but then one could always choose to do nothing instead.

If you’re sensible, you don’t want to know about things you don’t want to be affected by, by mistake.

Maturity comes with a faint whiff of marsh gas about it, which is why most people put their noses up while they’re about it.

Subtlety is the spice of life, without which there is only the continued blandness of some sort of incomprehension.

Beware of he who isn’t eager, as he isn’t “one of us” and may even be “one of them.”

A real man will not converse with a lesser man, but will discuss “it” at length with his mates.

It is a great mistake to sit down and do nothing, for nothing will be done, and there’s not much that can be done about that.

When someone tells you to fuck off, then you can both laugh about it later.

Accepting your limitations can be the beginnings of using that to create a new viewpoint on your life. You make of that what you wish.

Never assume that somebody who you trust completely would have any better insights than you into what you should be doing with yourself.

If what you know isn’t quite correct; then what you do next should be much better understood than that.

For all the fanaticism of the fanatic the fanatical man cannot see it for what it is for himself.

It’s fortunate that we’re not smart enough to comprehend everything happening to us, because if we could we couldn’t get our heads around it.

Do not simply assume that the person you’re holding an interesting conversation with is talking solely to you, as he could simply be talking to himself.

When you start to ignore someone in your sphere of influence he’ll ignore you right back much worse, then you’ll notice him right enough.

Dominance postures induce receptive-acceptance procedures—now, you either “go away,” or, alternatively, you’re here to stay and “prove it.”

The appearance of happiness is the custom-made defence of the “jollity along a bit”—or else you risk being thought of by people as being highly-strung.

One should only step over somebody when he’s dead, as when he’s alive he doesn’t much like it.

What does it take to really want to do what you should want to do, a healthy sense of “checking it out”?

You can be honourable without being reckless, but it’s an odd kettle of fish to deal with.

Opinions are like arseholes: everybody has got one and they always go off when least expected.

To focus on something important in time, is to touch on its unique essence in a moment of pure revelation.

There is a limiting factor to limitations: you don’t always know where their limits lie.

Sometimes, you can have nothing left to drive you, which can be a driving force in itself; or, sometimes, it isn’t.

Expect nothing from the world and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Sometimes, you can’t get what you want when you want it, which must be annoying.

One’s own stupidity doesn’t have to be thought about too much, but to be done well it does need to be accomplished properly.

Intelligent people must think without having to think about it too much, while fools must do the same thing but do it quicker.

One’s amusement at seeing another person’s embarrassment over his exposure is part of the course in human society, while being in a position to be embarrassed isn’t often so amusing.

Preening is the dividing line between the wallys and the wankers, although they may not see it quite that way.

When it comes right down to it, you must owe complete strangers precisely what they owe you: nothing whatsoever except an occasional long, cold stare.

The only thing there is to bargain with is your life, which always has a relative value.

Sticking one’s neck out over nothing in particular over nobody of relevance, is the mundane prerogative of fabulous fools doing their Freudian bit for the cause of human misunderstanding in general.

The “frighteners” hiding away amongst us try to use that which frightens us most with impunity, and the point is that it’s best used like that.

By analogy, we usually gauge other people’s strength by our own strengths and not by our truly gauging theirs.

Just because you may not have understood all the right answers is not always because you did not think to ask all the right questions, but it will usually be the case.

The difference between feeling all right and not feeling all right mainly lies still in tomorrow’s promises.

It appears that even a genius can feel a failure, if failure is part of his genius.

One of the most amusing things about learning something is that it can be forgotten, and forgotten so completely that it is forgotten that you learnt it.

Triviality has a major limit to it: it may only be fully achieved through making the right effort.

Since all proof is probably derived through analogy, any proof can apparently be effectively denied by belief.

What has been done should obviously be put aside, after all, there’s not much else that can be done with it.

Water under the bridge is just that: the liquid essence of time.