“If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”
Variant: The real man wants two different things: danger and play. Therefore he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Our stories may be singular, but our destination is shared.”
“Pooh, how do you spell love?' 'You don't spell love Piglet, you feel it”
Variant: How do you spell love?
You don't spell it, you feel it.
“Write hard and clear about what hurts.”
“There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.”
Variant: There are times when the utmost daring is the height of wisdom.
Source: On War (1832), Book 2
“Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.”
Zen Masters : The Wisdom of Frank Zappa (2003)
“He who builds children palaces tears down prison walls.”
“A man is never as big as when he is on his knees to help a child.”
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
Variant: I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
“If a poem hasn't ripped apart your soul; you haven't experienced poetry.”
Opium (1929)
“To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd”
“I have not told half of what I saw.”
Non ho scritto neppure la metà delle cose che ho visto.
On his death-bed, when urged to retract "some of the seemingly incredible statements he made in his book", as quoted in The travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian (J. M. Dent, 1926), p. xxiv. Quote in Italian from Imago mundi seu Chronica (c. 1330) by Jacopo d'Acqui, as reported in the bibliographic note to Marco Polo: Storia del mercante che capì la Cina (2009) by Vito Bianchi.
“A man deserves a second chance, but keep an eye on him.”
“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”
