Timbuktu by Paul Auster

• Know thine enemy--and then keep a wide berth.
• No one can ever amount to anything in this life without someone else to believe in him.
• Since life was a gamble anyway, why not go for broke?
• The more wretched your life was, the closer you were to the truth, to the gritty nub of existence.
• Throw yourself into the arms of the world and the air will hold you. Hold back and the world will jump you from behind.
• Good stories were not necessarily true stories.
• It all balances out in the end, doesn't it? Just when you think you're top gun, you wind up as bottom dog.
• The human spirit is a dull instrument, and often we're no better at figuring out how to take care of ourselves than the lowest worm in the ground. Whatever else I've been, I've never let myself be that worm. I've jumped, I've galloped, I've soared, and no matter how many times I've crashed back to earth, I've always picked myself up and tried again.
• To leave the world a little better than you found it. That's the best a man can ever do.
• I've done my best, but sometimes a man's best isn't good enough.
• Only out of stubbornness are great things born.
• How could you know unless you tried?
• You couldn't just blunder in and hope for the best.
• Love was not a quantifiable substance. There was always more of it somewhere, and even after one love had been lost, it was by no means impossible to find another.
• If death is everywhere, what difference does it make where you go?
• Such is the way with dogs. They might not always understand the nuances of their masters' thoughts, but they feel what they feel.
• What good was a home if you didn't feel safe in it?
• That's the trouble with young ones. They might mean well, but they don't have any power.
• Not all stories have happy endings.
• The world was filled with such wonders, and it was a sad state of affairs when a man spent his time worrying about the wrong things.
• Good begets good; evil begets evil; and even if the good you give is met by evil, you have no choice but to go on giving better than you get.
• You didn't turn your back on a person for letting you down just once--not after a lifetime of friendship, you didn't and especially not if there were extenuating circumstances.
• There was much to be thankful for, and much life still to be lived.

1/8/2011--2:15 pm