"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. "
— Raymond Chandler

"From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away. "
— Raymond Chandler

"Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production. "
— Raymond Chandler

""Has anyone ever told you," I said, "that you coalesce reality?"
"No. They only say that I'm good in the sack."
"They are accurate but limited" I said. "And if you give me their names I'll kill them.""
— Robert B. Parker (Ceremony)

""Yeah. Floyd is his batman."
"His what?"
"Batman, like in the British army, each officer had a batman, a personal servant."
"You spend too much time reading, Spenser. You know more stuff that don't make you money than anybody I know."" "
— Robert B. Parker (Mortal Stakes)

"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."
— William F. Buckley Jr.

"I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said."
— William F. Buckley Jr.

""I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard." "
— William F. Buckley Jr.

"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will. Integrity is not a search for the rewards of integrity. Maybe all you ever get for it is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide. It is not supposed to be a productive asset."
— John D. MacDonald (The Turquoise Lament)

"A man with a credit card is in hock to his own image of himself."
— John D. MacDonald

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
— Ayn Rand

"A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others."
— Ayn Rand

"Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to reason and mocks the power of all philosophers. But, in fact, a person's sexual choice is the result and sum of their fundamental convictions. Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life. Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves. No matter what corruption they're taught about the virtue of selflessness, sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which they cannot perform for any motive but their own enjoyment - just try to think of performing it in a spirit of selfless charity! - an act which is not possible in self-abasement, only in self-exultation, only on the confidence of being desired and being worthy of desire. It is an act that forces them to stand naked in spirit, as well as in body, and accept their real ego as their standard of value. They will always be attracted to the person who reflects their deepest vision of themselves, the person whose surrender permits them to experience - or to fake - a sense of self-esteem .. Love is our response to our highest values - and can be nothing else."
— Ayn Rand

"A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims."
— Ayn Rand

"Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want."
— Ayn Rand

"The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone."
— Ayn Rand (The Virtue of Selfishness)

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter."
— Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

"Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."
— P.J. O'Rourke

"Drugs have taught an entire generation of kids the metric system"
— P.J. O'Rourke

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."
— P.J. O'Rourke

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible."
— P.J. O'Rourke

"A hat should be taken off when greeting a lady, and left off the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat."
— P.J. O'Rourke (Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People)

"Politicians are wonderful people as longa as they stay away from things they don't understand, such as working for a living."
— P.J. O'Rourke

"The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it."
— P.J. O'Rourke

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
— Mark Twain

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough"
— Mae West

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
— Elie Wiesel