12 Quotes by Mark Rowlands

Civilization is only possible for deeply unpleasant animals. It is only an ape that can be truly civilized.

In the end, it is our defiance that redeems us. If wolves had a religion – if there was a religion of the wolf – that it is what it would tell us.

The most important way of remembering someone is by being the person they made us — at least in part — and living the life they have helped shape. Sometimes they are not worth remembering. In that case, our most important existential task is to expunge them from the narrative of our lives. But when they are worth remembering, then being someone they have helped fashion and living a life they have helped forge are not only how we remember them they are how we honour them.

Deception, machination and mendacity lie at the core of human intelligence, like worms coiled at the core of a apple.

In the end, it is our defiance that redeems us...

What is most important when the time comes – and it always will – is to live your life with the coldness of a wolf.

What is best about our lives -the moments when we are, as we would put it, at our happiest- is both pleasant and deeply unpleasant. Happiness is not a feeling; it is a way of being. If we focus on the feelings, we will miss the point.

It is a common misconception – pervasive and tenacious, but a misconception nonetheless – that arses are made for sitting on. It seems, instead, they are made for running.

The key to building distance in the long run is the ability of the mind to lie to the body – and be convincing.