Rob Smith, Jr.

“Everything which distinguishes man from the animals depends upon this ability to volatilize perceptual metaphors in a schema, and thus to dissolve an image into a concept. For something is possible in the realm of these schemata which could never be achieved with the vivid first impressions: the construction of a pyramidal order according to castes and degrees, the creation of a new world of laws, privileges, subordinations, and clearly marked boundaries — a new world, one which now confronts that other vivid world of first impressions as more solid, more universal, better known, and more human than the immediately perceived world, and thus as the regulative and imperative world.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense

“If the cards are stacked against you, reshuffle the deck.”
― John D. MacDonald

“Never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.”
― John Wayne

“This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.”
― George V. Higgins, The Friends of Eddie Coyle