The Cynic's Book of Wisdom:
- Never discount the possibility you might live through it.
- In the end you, you are the only answer to the question: What to do?
- Sometimes you get a miracle. Don't expect another one.
- Before declaring victory over your opponent, make sure you are playing the same game.
- Sometimes the crazy person is right.
- Nothing is so destructive as what we believe to be true.
- The past is always waiting.
- You are in more danger from the other person's God than your own.
- No escape is final.
- Sometimes victory is deciding to act.
- Great power does not foster great flexibility.
- Know when to hang on, when to let go, and when not to get on the ride in the first place.
- Surviving the worst will always complicate the matter.
- Sometimes your allies are chosen for you.
- Fear the new, but fear more the obsessive grasp of the old.
- The universe does not go out of its way to conform to your expectations.
- Nothing moves a State quicker than fear, and nothing a State fears so much as change.
- When you ask if you want to know, you don't.
- We are defined by the secrets we choose to keep.
- Right and wrong are defined by what you do, not what you serve.
- An event is dangerous in direct proportion to how unexpected it is.
- Freedom is simple ignorance of whom you serve.
- Remove the fear of death and you remove the primary constraint on human action.
- Your friends gain more from your failures than your enemies.
- God favors the strongest battalion.
- The Devil is in the details, and God is right there egging him on.
- Everyone worships the God that promises what they want.
- The shortest freeway will have the highest toll.
- The most dangerous impulse is to feel safe.
- A soul's value tends to appreciate considerably after it is sold.
- The risks we see are often those we have already overcome.
- We serve most those beliefs that we first reject.
- Power is not the same as knowledge.
- Everyone is vulnerable to their past.
- Blaming Fate, God, or Destiny is an admission that you don't have a clue what is going on.
- If you have a choice between bang or whimper, choose bang.
- We only assume we know what we are doing.
- Even if you expect change, the change is not what you expect.
- Always bet on the team with fewer rules.
- Much good is done to atone for past evil.
- Desperate plans are only reasonable in retrospect.
- Insanity doesn't mean the voices are wrong.
- Imaginary friends are better than imaginary enemies.
- The universe grants no special privileges, even privilege to be disadvantaged.
- The worst atrocities are committed with the best of intentions.
- The longer you wait to hear the news the less likely you will like it.
- It's the waiting that is the worst.
- The universe doesn't lie, but that doesn't mean you understand what it is saying.
- You never receive the punishment you expect.
- A situation is safe insofar as the risks are unknown.
- Never stand between an armed man and the exit.
- Some of the most severe wounds never bleed.
- A person unwilling to change is unable to survive.
- Standard procedure only applies to standard situations.
- Fear makes us survive. Hope makes us want to.
- Sometimes explosions are necessary.
- No one is absolute certain what they will do in a crisis.
- It is better to ally along shared interests than shared ideals.
- It is the height of arrogance to assume you are unique.
- Don't assume you know what the enemy wants.
- Problems are never solved, only replaced.
- Those who predict the future are doomed to create it.
- We rely on our ignorance to keep us sane.
- Things continue.
- If we had perfect understanding of the consequences of our actions, we would never act.
- Nothing ends perfectly.
- God speaks to fewer ears than hear him.
- You cannot argue with high explosives.
- No bureaucracy responds efficiently in a crisis.
- Planning is necessary but never sufficient.
- It's larger than you can imagine.
- Before searching for something , make sure you understand what is before your eyes.
- Beware your allies' secrets.
- Security is only 100% effective when protecting something no one wants.
- They never help you for your sake.
- There are never only two sides to any conflict.
- Nothing is inconceivable to a doomed man.
- Don't underestimate anyone's capacity for irrational hatred.
- Hell grows out of a desire for Utopia.
- Live each day as your last, remembering that it might not be.
- If you shoot, shoot to kill.
- Power will always fall to weakness it has denied possessing.
- It is human nature to ignore the fate of nations when one's family is at stake.
- Never underestimate the ability to rationalize one's own self- interest.
- The intent of all insurrections is to bring chaos out of order.
- Heroism comes when all other options have been exhausted.
- Shared interests do not imply shared priorities.
- If you leave an enemy alive, you better leave him something to live for.
- The faster one runs from the past, the sooner one revisits it.
- Never assume you are on the winning team.
- Great evils are never met by small acts.
- Foreign policy is dictated by powerful men's prejudices.
- War is simply honest diplomacy.
- Capitalism is a dog eat- dog- system. However, with most other alternatives, the dog starves.
- Industry is amoral.
- A criminal is a revolutionary without the pretense.
- Might might not make right, but it makes a damn good argument for its position.
- An efficient legal system operates on the assumption that everyone is guilty of something.
- Alliances are based on the premise that the parties involved benefit more from screwing the rest of the world than from screwing each other.
- People prefer deals where only they benefit to one of mutual benefit between themselves and others.
- History is written by those in power to justify the present. Memory is the same thing on a smaller scale.
- Anyone who believes in free speech has never tried to make a living as a writer.
- Ethics only become a problem when taken seriously.
- Governments are always more at risk from their subjects than from external threats.
- Artificial Intelligences are feared more for the latter than the former.
- True enemies are as rare as true friends.
- The future is the past's revenge.
- We hate that which is too much like ourselves.
- We are the property of those we hate.
- Bravery comes when there are no other options.
- There is no aspect of politics that was not first invented within the confines of a human family.
- History is an accident.
- Mercenaries may not win as many wars as fanatics do, but they live longer.
- You can never know enough about a man's self- interest to be able to trust him fully.
- Most of life is waiting around for the shitstorm to start.
- Half of knowledge is knowing the questions.
- Anyone who doesn't fight for his own self- interest has volunteered to fight for someone else's.
- Never turn your back on the villain, especially when he's unconscious.
- Seeing is believing, but belief doesn't amount to much.
- It's a fundamental inequity of the universe, that, while you only have one life to give, you can take as many as you damn well please.
- Screwups, like entropy, always increase over time.
- Never say the problem is over, never mention what else could go wrong, and never say how lucky you are
- there is no surer way of inviting disaster.
- It is never as bad as it seems
- but sometimes it is worse.
- The more complicated the situation, the sooner and more catastrophic the eventual screwup.
- Never play chicken with someone who has nothing to lose.
- Problems are never solved, only replaced.
- Nothing is so fierce as a coward who is backed into a corner.
- It ain't over until the fat lady's dead.
- No one can be quite as annoying as a potential lover.
- Once you have mastered the art of deceiving yourself, deceiving others is that much easier.
- Those who are most sure of themselves are those possessing the fewest facts.
- One can watch everything and see nothing.
- We are the least qualified people to judge ourselves.
- People corrupt power, not vice versa.
- The bureaucracy changes only in response to some grand disaster.
- Better to regret something you have done, than something you haven't.
- If you can keep your head when those about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't know what's going on.
- We hate others for our own shortcomings.
- Nothing hurts so much as the loss of something you've never had.
- The future strikes with blinding speed. The past takes its time and aims carefully.
- It is easier to determine what is profitable than what is right.
- Never underestimate a problem you're running from.
- It's never what you expect.
- Much morality is there for the perception of others.
- Money isn't everything, and neither is anything else.
- Suspect your enemies, but more so your allies
- they can do more damage.
- When you rattle your saber, it becomes difficult to stab someone in the back.
- What you don't know will kill you.
- Any government will kill you if it feels threatened.
- The only escape- proof prison is one's own mind.
- The path out of a problem generally leads to one twice its size.
- Guilt is not a survival trait.
- It's better to hit your opponent when he isn't looking.
- It is pointless to worry once the situation becomes hopeless.
- Past and future are equally clouded by speculation.
- Patriotism is the preferred method of covering one's ass in wartime.
- An egotist takes the universe personally.
- Between too good to be true and worse than you imagine, bet on worse.
- Anything worth the trouble will cost more than you pay for it.
- Sign your name to the universe and someone will auction off the signature.
- Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
- Half of knowledge is knowing the questions.
- When in doubt, duck.
- You cannot escape the interconnectedness of events.
- Even a saint has ulterior motives.
- Anything can appear to be worse upon further reflection.
- Worry when the man with the gun is smiling.
- Superior technology is not a panacea.
- Dangerous is the man who accepts his own mortality.
- Forget enemies. Be afraid of friends with something to gain.
- Of forgiving and forgetting, the latter is infinitely easier.
- Strong emotional involvement rarely makes the job easier.
- There is no such thing as a secret.
- Don't try to count the players until the game is over.
- Self- examination is not a survival trait in times of crisis.
- The ship's destination doesn't matter when it is sinking.
- Staring outward eventually leads to staring inward. Not vice versa.
- A dependent ally is a resentful one.
- Knowing what is worst does not tell you what is best.
- Bystanders get shot.
- Once you leap, looking makes little difference.
- Never bet on a race you happen to be in.
- If you believe in your own immortality, you will never live to be disappointed.
- Selfishness is a survival trait.
- You don't want to know.
- Look behind the curtain.
- We prefer blame to justice.
- It is easier to conceive large plans than small ones.
- For every man imprisoned, there is a jailer with something to gain.
- A petty enemy is more dangerous than a great one.
- There is no such thing as good news.
- Time always wins.
- The important answers are those to the questions we ask ourselves.
- Conflicts are easier when your opponent doesn't fight back.
- If you wish to damn a man forever, grant him his heart's desire.
- Small risks rarely reap great rewards.
- Free men are slaves who are blind to their chains.
- Look at anything deeply enough and you see yourself looking back.
- Often progress is backing toward something.
- The less you expect, the more satisfied you'll be.
- In a world of crap you hold your nose and swim.
- Things are always darkest before they go completely black.
- The most dangerous lie is the one we force ourselves to believe.
- We only have what we believe we have, and that, rarely.
- A grand exit is preferable to a grand entrance.
- People die.
- We are each alone.
- It is never too late for something bad to happen.
- Sometimes you must attack an enemy at his strength.
- If people chose their parents, most of the world would be childless.
- Keep your eyes on the ball, and duck when someone swings a bat.
- Successful politics consists of allowing everyone to share your enemies.
- No one gets to write their own eulogy.
- Tyrants spring from chaos, and to chaos they eventually return.
- Surrender is always an option.
- A State rots from the bottom up.
- By the time policy descends from the high to the low, the high may no longer exist.
- The ability to control is often inversely proportional to the desire to.
- All of war is unpleasant, including its end.