Tim

“I had no interest in existing as a martyr, forever defined by the worst things that had happened to me. I needed to believe that when your life has become a cage, you can loosen the bars and reclaim your freedom.”
― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

“Man’s finest workmanship, the closer you observe it, the more imperfections it shows; as in a piece of polished steel a microscope will discover a rough surface. Whereas, what may look coarse and rough in Nature’s workmanship will show an infinitely minute perfection, the closer you look into it. The reason of the minute superiority of Nature’s work over man’s is, that the former works from the innermost germ, while the latter works merely superficially.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Like an actor he had a sense of approaching anti-climax before the curtain went up, a sense of great things dwindling to a small, mean end; as death itself seemed small and mean to him after the struggles of his life.”
― John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

“...instead of praying for some new holy man to save you, learn the way to Hell in order to steer clear of it yourself.”
― Niccolo Machiavelli