My Small Boat

At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.

I can keep ten poems and twenty theories in my head at once but I can only think of one practical thing at a time.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

Knowledge consists of knowing that a tomato is a fruit, and wisdom consists of not putting it in a fruit salad.

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
it is […]

You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

Style is the feather that helps the arrow fly, not the one that you put in your hat.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Inland
People that build their houses inland,
People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house, and build a house there,
Far from the sea-board, far from the sound
Of water sucking the hollow ledges,
Tons of water striking the shore –
What do they long for, as I long for
One salt smell of the sea once more?
People the waves […]

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

Go not for every grief to the physician, nor for every quarrel to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.