"George, you won," said Guillam, as they walked slowly towards the car. "Did I?' said Smiley. "Yes. Yes, well I suppose I did.”
― John le Carré, Smiley's People


A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.
― Dr. Jordan B. Peterson


Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: DO.
― Jocko Willink


We suffer more in imagination than in reality.
― Seneca


It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


If it is not right do not do it. If it is not true do not say it.
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along.
― Cus D'Amato


Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
— Mark Twain


A thousand scars betray me
Oh, what's another one?
— Red - Cauterize


What we do now echoes in eternity.
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


You've got one glass of water inside your head, with all the tears for a lifetime. If you waste them over nothing, then you won't be able to cry for real when you need to.
― Jodi Picoult


It's easy to stand in the crowd, but it takes courage to stand alone.
— Mahatma Gandhi


Protests are a tool of democracies. If you don't have a democracy, you are using the wrong tool.
— Anonymous


But where is it written that all our dreams must be small ones?
— Byron, Babylon 5


They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.
― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life


When it comes down to it, I came in this world by myself, and when I die I'm gonna be the only one in that coffin.
― Obadiah Troubadour


You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.
― Jennifer J. Freeman


The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
― Epictetus


My tardiness in answering your letter was not due to press of business. Do not listen to that sort of excuse; I am at liberty, and so is anyone else who wishes to be at liberty. No man is at the mercy of affairs. He gets entangled in them of his own accord, and then flatters himself that being busy is a proof of happiness.
— Seneca, Letter 106


A genuine enemy is more useful than a fake friend.
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana


If you were heading out on a journey by sea, who would you ideally want deciding who was in charge of the vessel? Just anyone or people educated in the rules and demands of seafaring? So why then do we keep thinking that any old person should be fit to judge who should be a ruler of a country?
― Socrates


The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
― Winston Churchill


Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows the captain lied
― Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows


Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
― Marcus Aurelius


Bestow pardon for many things; seek pardon for none.
― Seneca


The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.
― Epictetus


Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. Now.
― Marcus Aurelius


It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is you get up one more time than you were knocked down.
― Roy T. Bennett


You are not your body and hair-style, but your capacity for choosing well. If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.
― Epictetus


Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
― Marcus Aurelius


I came to Rome when it was a city of stone, and left it a city of marble.
― Caesar Augustus


When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.
― Thomas Sowell


A hero will sacrifice the person they love to save the world, but a villain will sacrifice the world to save the person they love.
― Renee Rocco


The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings


It is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.
— Niccolò Machiavelli, The Letters of Machiavelli