“I don't think anything might have been. What is, is.”

“Don't be afraid to hear me. Don't shrink from anything I say. I am like one who died young: all my life might have been.”

“Don't regret what might have been. Accept what is and rejoice in what is yet to be.”

“You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit and if I can't figure it out, then I go on to something else, but I don't have to know an answer, I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is so far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me.”

“Well, sure, but I don't bring God into it. I think shower massage might have been invented by the devil. God invented the missionary position.”

“Don't think I have any intention of caressing your cheek and saying I was wrong," he said softly as I watched the life ebb out of him. "I will not weep and wonder what might have been. I'm sure you understand.”