As quoted in The Power of Choice (2007) by Joyce Guccione, p. 49
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”
“I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them.”
Conversation with Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases (11 November 1816), Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, v. 4, p. 133 http://books.google.com/books?id=945jAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA133.
Context: I may have had many projects, but I never was free to carry out any of them. It did me little good to be holding the helm; no matter how strong my hands, the sudden and numerous waves were stronger still, and I was wise enough to yield to them rather than resist them obstinately and make the ship founder. Thus I never was truly my own master but was always ruled by circumstances.
Swallowdale (Chapter 4), 1931
“My trouble is insomnia. If I had always slept properly, I'd never have written a line.”
Source: Death on the Installment Plan
“She had the best kind of courage, or maybe the worst kind, the kind that gets you into trouble.”
Source: Fear is the Key
Introduction (p. viii)
The Wrecks of Time aka The Rituals of Infinity (1967)
“The worst illness of our time is that so many people have to suffer from never being loved.”
"Princess Diana Charity Work", Biography Online
As quoted in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), edited by Charles George Herbermann
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
Context: If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don’t. It’s like a human body, you see. A few cuts and bruises here and there don’t hurt it. Not even major surgery if it’s done properly. Paradoxes are just the scar tissue. Time and space heal themselves up around them and people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make.
“Harry Dresden: Many things are not as they seem: The worst things in life never are.”
Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 1, Opening line
