“Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.”

“You are a man now, and to be un hombre, a man must not only know right from wrong, he must also know who he is and who he isn’t. Because if a man doesn’t know who he is and who he isn’t, then no matter how much he knows about right and wrong, he will always be like a fish out of water.”

“Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”

“How can you justify keeping a calendar & still keep most of your other commitments w/yourself in your head?”

“A consoling thought: what matters is not what we do, but the spirit in which we do it. Others suffer too; so much so that there is nothing in the world but suffering; the problem is simply to keep a clear conscience.”

“Sure, when you're in the midst of your own suffering, it's easy to convince yourself that you're no good—but we are all tested in this life… The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

“(mimicking a big fish talking to a little fish)
"Hey - Perch…"
(points at his eyes, then at the imaginary perch's)
"Look at me…"
(thinks, concedes, then points at the sides of his head where a fish's eyes would be)
"Look at me… Both eyes…" - oh, I've thought it all through - "if you ever see a worm… in the shape of a J… swim away. That's how we lost your Uncle Pike."”

“No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”

“The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

“You refuse to listen. Because, like every other man, you can keep only one idea in your head at a time-usully the wrong one.”