“A hope fulfilled is already half a disappointment.”

“He looked so profoundly disappointed in me that I wondered for a moment if he was someone I knew.”

“There is one sure means in life of ensuring that you are not ground into paste by disappointment, futility and disillusionment. And that is always to ensure, to the utmost of your ability, that you are doing it solely for the money.”

“... and because it was a drunken perception, it was perfect, entire, and lasted about half a second.”

“A bitter, disappointed, and jealous man kills the man he believes to be his wife's lover, this you consider to be unlikely. A murderous Nazi spy with orders to abduct a parrot, on the other hand—”

“He had already seized this particular day once, but he was prepared, if need be, to go ahead and seize the motherfucker all over again.”

“No; he could be ruined again and again by hope, but he would never be capable of belief.”