The way past despair and false hope is just letting go. It doesn't improve your odds of survival, but it doesn't waste mental energy.

Some see the glass half full, some see it half empty, and some see it crawling with toxic alien parasites who want to devour your pancreas.

Having a perilous adventure is always better than comatose safety. Always, always, always, always, always.

Deliberate choices are the only sacred things in the universe. Everything else is just hydrogen.

I do not care about the greatest good for the greatest number . . . Most people are poop-heads I do not care about them at all.

You don’t free yourself from duty by running away. That only increases the weight on your shoulders.

Ah, but I am more perceptive than most of the universe. Especially the parts of the universe that are vacuum.

I hated relying on luck. When it worked, it made me feel so damned eerie.

Don't be a little paranoid; worry about everything, or let it all go.

That's the first rule of command; be consistent! You can be sadistic, you can be lazy, you can be stupid, but if you're consistent the crew will still let you sit in when they play dominoes.

Lawyers will always buckle under to something, whether its bribes, violence, court orders, or the weight of their own bullshit.

I'm a bit of a romantic. In theory!

I've set my own rules to live by. The first one is: 'Never believe ANYthing the government says.'

I say, if you're going to eat a creature alive, you have to expect some screaming. That is the carnivore's burden.

I accept that in a free society you have to justify reductions in people's liberties. I accept that, bearing in mind my starting point is that the most important human right is the right to life.

I took guitar lessons and recorded the song in New York. It was kind of a dream. I got to pretend I was a recording artist for a couple days.

Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling.

Often a sign of expertise is noticing what doesn't happen.

Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.

I think that that integrity is something that is important to voters.

After that, I came back every year. Everyone said, 'Well, when you retire you can move there.' But I said, 'Why should I live my whole life where I don't want to be.'