“Do not hope for too much. But do not settle for too little.”

“In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little.”

“One had rather, on such occasions, do too much than too little.”

“Kissing a woman's hand is never the right thing to do; it is either too much or too little.”

“I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.”

“When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.”