I can maintain my sense of the sacredness of existence only by understanding my own limitations and losing my self-importance.

The simple act of opening a bottle of wine has brought more happiness to the human race than all the collective governments in the history of earth

Barring love I'll take my life in large doses alone--rivers, forests, fish, grouse, mountains. Dogs.

The wilderness does not make you forget your normal life so much as it removes the distractions for proper remembering.

The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.

Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.

In a life properly lived, you're a river.

Beware, O wanderer, the road is walking too.

Death steals everything except our stories.

Fishing makes us less the hostages to the horrors of making a living.

I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass.

When someone refuses listening to reason disaster will surely follow.

Your friends will still be your friends, if they're good friends.

The reason there weren't any, I am surmising, is that a lot of Latin kids, Latino kids, in those days didn't have the money to take those kind of classes.

We smile at the women who are eagerly following the fashions in dress whilst we are as eagerly following the fashions in thought.

This illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.

It is a good thing to follow the First Law of Holes: if you are in one, stop digging.

A civilization begins to decline the moment Life becomes its sole obsession.

Racial discrimination is illegal. It's illegal in the United States. It's illegal in Arizona. It has been and it will continue to be.

Every dog has his day.

All right, two dozen house specials. Any chance one of you might want to live dangerously and try a vegetable? (Aimee) Do we look like rabbits to you? (Fury)