Paul Levine > Quotes

“We all hold the keys to our own jail cells.”
― Paul Levine, Solomon vs. Lord

“Solomon's Laws
1. When the law doesn't work...work the law.”
― Paul Levine, Solomon vs. Lord

“Solomon's Laws:
8. If a guy who's smart, handsome, and rich invites you and your girlfriend to a nudist club...chances are he's got a giant shmeckel.”
― Paul Levine, The Deep Blue Alibi

“Justice requires lawyers who are prepared, witnesses who tell the truth, judges who know the law, and jurors who stay awake. Justice is the North Star, the burning bush, the holy virgin. It cannot be bought, sold, or mass produced. It is intangible, ineffable, and invisible, but if you are to spend your life in its pursuit, it is best to believe it exists, and that you can attain it.”
― Paul Levine, Flesh & Bones

“The people we've known the longest are often the people we know the least.”
― Paul Levine, The Deep Blue Alibi

“At the prosecution table, Flagler gave me his Ivy League snicker. If I wanted, I could dangle him out the window by his ankles. But then, I was picking up penalties for late hits while he was singing tenor with the Whiffenpoofs. Okay, so I’m not Yale Law Review, but I’m proud of my diploma. University of Miami. Night division. Top half of the bottom third of my class.”
― Paul Levine, Lassiter

“T-shirt with the saying “I May Be Old, but I Got to See All the Cool Bands.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Rap

“A good lawyer is part con man, part priest -- promising riches, threatening hell. My ethical rules are simple. I won't lie to the court or let a client do it. But I've never been in this position. How far would I go for a woman who mattered? Is there anything I wouldn't do to win?”
― Paul Levine, Flesh & Bones

“I've been ridiculed by silk-suited lawyers, jailed by ornery judges, and occasionally paid for services rendered. I never intended to be a hero, and I succeeded.”
― Paul Levine, Fool Me Twice

“The gods tempt us. They offer us riches and sweet smelling women, tres leches, each milk sweeter than the one before. But you cannot beat the gods. The grander house and the bigger deal only mean more borrowed time, more risk. When you build your life on a house of cards, you never know when the joker will turn up.”
― Paul Levine, Riptide

“I'm a burger and brew guy in a paté and Chardonnay world. I'm as health conscious as the next guy, as long as the next guy is sitting on a bar stool. FALSE DAWN http://tinyurl.com/64qngk5”
― Paul Levine, False Dawn

“All of us live with our own demons, do penance in our private ways. We need our friends for support and advice, but we draw our strength from within.”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision

“In my experience, honest people don't need to put their hand on a Bible to tell the truth, and with dishonest people, it makes no difference.”
― Paul Levine, Last Chance Lassiter

“We keep looking for justice, but it’s nothing but stormy nights and dark alleys out there.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Rap

“I've never been disbarred, committed or convicted of moral turpitude, and the only time I was arrested, it was a case of mistaken identity...I didn't know the guy I hit was a cop.”
― Paul Levine, To Speak for the Dead

“We are a vain, greedy, and foolish people. We squander and spoil, befoul and defile. We take for granted the beauties and bounties of nature, but in the end nature will out. We will dry up or smoke out or choke on our own waste. In the end we will pay the ultimate price.”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision

“A lawyer who’s afraid of jail is like a surgeon who’s afraid of blood.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Rap

“I could be wrong, but she seemed to be one of those anti-gluten, pro-yoga, organic wine bar, Generation-Y echo boomers. A Gwyneth Paltrow type who would name her first daughter Persimmon or whatever.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Rap

“I stood there, 220 pounds of ex-football player, ex-public defender, ex-a-lot-of-things, leaning against the faded walnut rail of the witness stand, home to a million sweaty palms. "To Speak for the Dead" (The Jake Lassiter Series) http://tinyurl.com/69eua2t”
― Paul Levine, To Speak for the Dead

“Nobody knows something about everything.”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision

“I don’t tweet or blog or order pizza with arugula on top. You won’t find my mug on Facebook or Instagram. I don’t have a life coach, an aroma therapist, or a manicurist, and I sure as hell don’t do Pilates.”
― Paul Levine, State vs. Lassiter

“Modern life is one sweeping, cradle-to-grave invasion of privacy. An encroachment on our ever-narrowing space. Our footprints in the sand are a billion bytes on a thousand hard drives. Fodder for the snoop and the historian alike.”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision

“If your theories prove to be a floccinaucinihilipilification.” “A flossy…what?” “Sorry. Such an ostentatious, academic word. If your theories prove to be valueless, where are you then?”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision

“There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” —Ambrose Bierce”
― Paul Levine, State vs. Lassiter

“With women, my wiring shorts out. My senses respond to the physical and the chemical, the scent and sheen of her. Evil could not possibly reside in the form of this angel. Or could it? Sure, I'm politically incorrect. I admit it; I confess; guilty as charged. I am, Your Honor, the lowest of the species, still wet from the swamp, webbed feet fossilized in the mud. I am a Man!”
― Paul Levine, Flesh & Bones

“Life, John Lennon famously said, is what happens to you while you’re making other plans. Now that I think of it, Lennon, that wizard of words and music, probably wasn’t the first. There’s an old Yiddish proverb, “Man plans and God laughs.” Probably every culture has a virtually identical aphorism.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Luck

“Mr. Lassiter, you know better than that,” the judge said icily. He turned to the jury box. “The jury shall disregard Mr. Lassiter’s last statement.” I didn’t mind the instruction. In my experience, jurors forget most everything I say, except what the judge tells them to disregard.”
― Paul Levine, Flesh and Bones

“Men act as if we just crawled from the swamp, our webbed feet dripping brackish water as we waddle ashore, seeking to mate with a female or, lacking that, a warm patch of mud.”
― Paul Levine, Bum Rap

“The acquisition of material things has become the hallmark of the shallow life.”
― Paul Levine, Last Chance Lassiter

“I hit every red light for fifty blocks heading east toward Coconut Grove. They’re timed that way by our traffic planners, who might be getting kickbacks from the oil and tire companies.”
― Paul Levine, Night Vision