Liam Porter

“Women made such swell friends. Awfully swell. In the first place, you had to be in love with a woman to have a basis of friendship. I had been having Brett for a friend. I had not been thinking about her side of it. I had been getting something for nothing. That only delayed the presentation of the bill. The bill always came. That was one of the swell things you could count on.
I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays. No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave up something and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good. I paid my way into enough things that I liked, so that I had a good time. Either you paid by learning about them, or by experience, or by taking chances, or by money. Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I though, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

“Though waiters always die poor, they have long runs of luck occasionally.”
― George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London

“Waiters are seldom socialists.”
― George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London

“Quoi, c'était à cette chévite créature que ses pareils et lui obéssaient depuis des siècles ? Alors qu'un temps de galop suffisait à le distancer, une morsure à le mutiler, une ruade à l'étendre mort ! Sans le cuir et le fer, qu'est-ce que l'homme ?”
― Gilbert Cesbron, Tout dort et je veille