“He had been fighting with himself longer than he could remember and was still not sure who was winning.”
Source: Stamping Butterflies (2004), Chapter 5 (p. 37)
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Jon Courtenay Grimwood 14
British writer 1953Related quotes

Dream Days (1898), The Reluctant Dragon
Context: Banquets are always pleasant things, consisting mostly, as they do, of eating and drinking; but the specially nice thing about a banquet is, that it comes when something's over, and there's nothing more to worry about, and to-morrow seems a long way off. St George was happy because there had been a fight and he hadn't had to kill anybody; for he didn't really like killing, though he generally had to do it. The dragon was happy because there had been a fight, and so far from being hurt in it he had won popularity and a sure footing in society. The Boy was happy because there had been a fight, and in spite of it all his two friends were on the best of terms. And all the others were happy because there had been a fight, and — well, they didn't require any other reasons for their happiness.

Shankar Dayal Sharma, 81, Former President of India

Three Discourses at Friday Communion November 14, 1849 Hong translation 1997 P. 119-120
1840s, Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays (1849)
“He who fight monsters must take care that he doesn't become one himself.”
Variant: A German philosopher once wrote that he who fights monsters must take care that he doesn't become one himself.
Source: Scorpia Rising

La condition humaine [Man's Fate] (1933)

Variant: Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.