Books are the building blocks of civilization, for without the written word, a man knows nothing beyond what occurs during his own brief years and, perhaps, in a few tales his parents tell him.

I think of myself in the oral tradition-as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of the campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered- as a storyteller. A good storyteller.

Trade is much superior to piracy. You can rob and kill a man but once, but you can cheat him again and again.

I wonder why it is the man who pleads for mercy never gives it.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

There is no man more dangerous than one who does not doubt his own rightness.

For a man with an education the world is a wide place and the opportunities are many

Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him.

After a few days, I mused, I would have no trouble. Whoever heard of a revolution of fat men?