“Some men spend their lives looking for ways to punish themselves for having been born.”

“The sea was surging among the pilings like the blithe mindless forces of dissolution.”

“Pour alcohol on a bundle of nerves and it generally turns into a can of worms.”

“In wine was truth, perhaps, but in whisky, the way Hoffman sluiced it down, was an army of imaginary rats climbing your legs.”

“On the night of New Years Day, I thought of a wonderful New Years resolution for the men who run the world: get to know the people who only live in it.”

“The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman think about the next generation.”

“He was a consummate politician-- which is to say he was given to expedient speech and lacked even a vestigial spine.”