It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.

It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them – neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

Drink is the only opponent I have been unable to beat.

There’ll always be serendipity involved in discovery.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

At the outset, I want to say that the suggestion that the struggle in South Africa is under the influence of foreigners or communists is wholly incorrect. I have done whatever I did because of my experience in South Africa and my own proudly felt African background, and not because of what any outsider might have said.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

‚American Graffiti‘ was unpleasant because of the fact that there was no money, no time, and I was compromising myself to death.

You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.

I’m a hard guy to live with. I’m like a caged animal. I’m up all night walking around the living room. It’s hard for me to come down from what I do.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

It I talked about Watergate, I was described as struggling to free myself from the morass. If I did not talk about Watergate, I was accused of being out of touch with reality.

Those who have a true understanding of America know that we have no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human freedom.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Why am I here? I’m not lucky. That’s God.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

What prevails in every corner of this globalized world is the real struggle of our species for its own survival.

I bear a charmed life.

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

I feel impressed to counsel those engaged in personal challenges to do right. In particular, my heart reaches out to those who feel discouraged by the magnitude of their struggle.

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.

The unnatural, that too is natural.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate… but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.

The formula ‚Two and two make five‘ is not without its attractions.

My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

I believe nothing happens by mistake. You know, the universe has a divine plan. That sounds dramatic.

Gee, its lonesome in the outfield. It’s hard to keep awake with nothing to do.

All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

There’s many ups and downs in the fight game.

In the grip of a neurological disorder, I am fast losing control of words even as my relationship with the world has been reduced to them.

No other country in the world does what we do. On every issue, the world turns to us, not simply because of the size of our economy or our military might – but because of the ideals we stand for, and the burdens we bear to advance them.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

A man’s character is his fate.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.