111 Quotes by Barry Eisler

Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind's equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They'll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive.

In my unfortunately infrequent encounters with real passion, I'm rarely as careful as I ought to be. The rationalization goes something like: With all the bullets and mortar rounds I've survived, I must be immune to sexually transmitted diseases. Stupid, I know. More likely, fate will indulge its taste for irony by killing me with AIDS os some other unpleasant alternative.

You see, cancer is simply nature's way of making you want to die.'Tatsu.

Do all the people who know me know me better than I know myself?

Most people are like sheep. Nice, harmless creatures who want nothing more than to be left alone so they can graze. But then of course there are wolves. Who want nothing more than to eat the sheep.But there’s a third kind of person. The sheepdog. Sheepdogs have fangs like wolves. But their instinct isn’t predation. It’s protection. All they want, what they live for, is to protect the flock.

Is there any teacher better, more patient, more determined than fate?

If you live only for yourself, dying is an especially scary proposition.

Caligula ne demişti? Oderint dum meduant. Bizden korktukları sürece, bırakın bizden nefret etsinler.

— E acabei por ir a casa dela para lhe configurar o sistema todo.— Harry, «configuraste-lhe o sistema todo»? — perguntei, arregalandoos olhos e fingindo-me pasmado.Baixou o olhar, mas não conseguiu esconder um sorriso.— Tu percebeste.— Não vais... penetrar as seguranças dela, pois não? — perguntei, incapazde resistir.