How little are we ourselves, and how strenuously do we play at it!
Being
Identity, that spectator of what he calls himself,
That net and aggregate of energies in transient combination.
—Cunningham
To be great is to be more than the sum of one’s parts; the usual case is to be less.
Problems are generally minor; the disasters are the solutions.
Things are not always what they seem, but that’s the way to bet.
The more you hope a story is true, the likelier it is to be false.
Unambiguous instances of humans overriding their biology are scarce, and suicide, the most drastic, commands respect, if only on that score.
It is often alleged of policies that they are employed in the interest of Social Darwinism; one doubts it, but if they are, they have manifestly failed.
A cause to die for attracts the man with little to live for.
Whatever you have done, you are the sort of person who would do that.
Nothing bores in on a man like his own uselessness, and no job title, salary, praise or prestige will permit him to hide it from himself.