“Strange that it seems more, not less, urgent to play some part in this struggle, this brief effort of animalcules striving to win for their race some increase of lucidity before the ultimate darkness.”

“Events are the ephemera of history; they pass across its stage like fireflies, hardly glimpsed before they settle back into darkness and as often as not into oblivion. Every event, however brief, has to be sure a contribution to make, lights up some dark corner or even some wide vista of history.”

Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) French historian and a leader of the Annales School

“Populations interact, some decline to extinction, and some expand. In an ice age the tundra advances on the forest, but in no sense is there a "struggle" between them. As the temperature gets colder, the forest species decline and the tundra species increase; that is all. There is neither effort nor fight. As we move toward the more complex animals, of course, both effort and fighting become more common, but even in the predator-prey relationship, there is catching and eating rather than fighting.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

“Some people seem to think that if the animals were not eaten they would multiply so rapidly as to overrun the earth. Is it not true that the more beef there is consumed the more there is raised? These people do not understand that there are men in the business who have made an effort to increase their stock by forced means.”

Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish (1844–1936) German religious movement founder

“In countries where there is a mild climate, less effort is expended on the struggle with nature and man is kinder and more gentle.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

“Gambling is not a vice, it is an expression of our humanness. We gamble. Some do it at the gaming table, some do not. You play, you win, you play, you lose, you play.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

“The wretch who on the scaffold stands
Has some brief time allow’d
For parting grasp of kindly hands,
For farewell to the crowd :”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

“The profit motive and the competitive struggle are more productive and less destructive on the frontier than in the city. Maldistribution of income becomes more devastating with increasing complexity and interdependence.”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

“A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Adventures of Sally

“Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist