“The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”

“Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not towisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”

“Be proud of every scar on your heart, each one holds a lifetime’s worth of lessons.”

“Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.”

“It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.”

“Civilizations grow by agreements and accomodations and accretions, not by repudiations. The rebels and the revolutionaries are only eddies, they keep the stream from getting stagnant but they get swept down and absorbed, they're a side issue. Quiet desperation is another name for the human condition. If revolutionaries would learn that they can't remodel society by day after tomorrow -- haven't the wisdom to and shouldn't be permitted to -- I'd have more respect for them ... Civilizations grow and change and decline -- they aren't remade.”

“I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow”