A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.