— that we humans have little or no influence on the two most important moments of our life. Being born and dying. That felt like the right kind of fuck-you to the universe that a great punk rock song requires.

There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.

We have so little control over our lives. The only thing we can really control is what we spend our days on. What we work on and how hard we work on it.

We are born and we die; and between these two most important events in our lives more or less time elapses which we have to waste somehow or other. In the end it does not seem to matter much whether we have done so in making money, or practicing law, or reading or playing, or in any other way, as long as we felt we were deriving a maximum of happiness out of our doings.

We have absolutely no control over what happens to us in life but what we have paramount control over is how we respond to those events.

No one has power over our principles, and what other people do control we don’t care about.

It seems to me that anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential, and has little or no significant influence on behavior.

Only a few things in life matter a little. The rest don’t matter at all.

We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.

Judged against eternity, how little of what agitates us makes any difference.

It is only in our decisions that we are important.

...when it comes to the issue of life and death I have no authority. Only God can give life and only He has the right to take it away.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

The real miracles make no noise. The crucial events in a life are unobtrusive.