Enemies come soon enough in a mans life,' he told me, 'you don't need to seek them out

I volunteered for this life, wanted it and am not going to bitch about it now that I've got it.

But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.

What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness.

Do not ever allow your mind to rob your soul of what belongs to it.

Safety, stability--it's an illusion. It's a false god, Simon. It's like clinging to a sinking raft instead of learning to swim.