“The man in that job shouldn’t have to be presented with anything! It’s for
someone who grabs it and holds on to it, for someone who thinks the gods
have conspired to bring him to this place, that destiny demands of him this
service! If you don’t have that kind of drive, that hubris, how in the hell
are you going to make the kind of decisions that stump every other person
in this country? How in the hell are you going to hold that kind of power
in your hand?!”
— The Undecideds

The Cloths of Heaven

“That’s why Monday, when it sees me coming
with my convict face, blazes up like gasoline,
and it howls on its way like a wounded wheel,
and leaves tracks full of warm blood leading toward the
night.”
— Walking Around
“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please—this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself”
— The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
— John Adams
Yes, halfway through this project we’ll discover the impossible, but we know how to build through the impossible. Impossible is when we do our best work.

The Makers of Things

“

All you’ve forsaken
And all that you’ve done
So that I could live out
This undying dream

Won’t be forgotten
Or taken for granted
I’ll always remember
Your endless sacrifice

”
— Endless Sacrifice
“Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.”
— The Man Watching
“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.”
— W.H. Auden
“At every action, no matter by whom performed, make it a practice to ask yourself, ‘What is his object in doing this?’ But begin with yourself, put this question to yourself first of all.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations