Truth is always the first casualty of war.

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

In war, truth is the first casualty.

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?

It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.

For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.

By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.

How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each successive pain distorts the preceding.

I'm a writer. I write checks. Mostly fiction.

That's the funny thing about America--the blessed thing. As many people as there are to hold you back, there are angels whose humanity makes up for all the others. I've had my share of angels.

When I want to find the vanguard of the people I look to the uneasy dreams of an aristocracy and find what they dread most.

When we give children advice or instant solutions, we deprive them of the experience that comes from wrestling with their own problems.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

Stressful energy arises when you think some future moment is more important than the present moment, and the doing becomes only a means to an end.

I'm not obsessed by looks. I think you can become a prisoner of your own image.

I was over self-medicating back when I was a kid and didn't know it.

I would be happy with an Olympic bronze. What I don't have is an Olympic medal.