Brother Stephen > Brother Stephen's Quotes

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

“Some people are like fragile petals, and they don't recover from hardship. Do we blame the petal? Or do we excuse its fragility and mourn its loss?”
― Aleksandra Layland, Of Wisdom and Valor: The Art of War. The Path of Peace.

“Actions speak louder than words. Words cost nothing. Actions can cost everything.”
― Aleksandra Layland, Of Wisdom and Valor: The Art of War. The Path of Peace.

“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if
evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows
disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the
shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings.
Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because
of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“You're not Dostoevsky,' said the citizeness, who was getting muddled by Koroviev. Well, who knows, who knows,' he replied.
'Dostoevsky's dead,' said the citizeness, but somehow not very confidently.
'I protest!' Behemoth exclaimed hotly. 'Dostoevsky is immortal!”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable"...In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.”
― George Orwell, Essays

“As days turned into months, Agent Mackechney’s claim that Halloran was unreliable sounded increasingly like a lie. The more I thought about how much Halloran’s story matched mine, the more I worried. I tried to suppress my fear that the FBI murdered Halloran to protect Rico and his team of ex-agents. If the FBI was willing to kill Halloran for talking about who killed Dad, what did that say about my future? Would I be their next victim?”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“I couldn’t imagine that the FBI was keeping Halloran a secret from the police. As it turns out, my mistake was the right one to make, for it revealed just how sinister Mike’s counterparts at the DOJ and FBI had become.”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“Four or five days after Halloran’s death, a reporter with the Quincy Patriot Ledger called Major Stanley D. Glanz, who was in charge of the Tulsa Police Department’s Detective Division, to ask how Halloran’s murder impacted the Wheeler investigation. To his shock, Glanz had never even heard of Halloran.[489] Glanz hadn’t gone on the July 6, 1981, trip to Massachusetts State Police headquarters, where Halloran was identified as the top suspect in Dad’s murder, and he probably hadn’t read Bishop’s trip report,[490] so he didn’t know what the reporter was talking about. More importantly, in the four or five days after Halloran’s murder, the FBI still hadn’t told the Tulsa police that they had an informant on Dad’s murder, much less that this informant had been shot.”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“Suspiciously, even though Mike was the lead detective on Dad’s homicide investigation, Mackechney had given me more information, most critically, that Halloran had implicated Rico in the murder. Even so, Mike would later describe this conversation as “a groundbreaking moment.” He now knew that he was “getting ready to walk into a battle…I knew things were going to be happening to me. The trust [in the FBI] had been broken officially that day.”[”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“day.”[503] Despite the FBI’s vague and self-serving description of what had happened, Mike correctly guessed that the FBI was “privy to some sort of lead, and they didn’t give the lead to us.” Mike hurried back to the station and announced, “We’re getting screwed.”[504] This was truly a David versus Goliath contest between the Tulsa Police Department and the FBI.”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“As a result, Tulsa Police received information from a confidential source confirming that Flemmi, Bulger, and Martorano were indeed good suspects for the Wheeler murder. They also learned that the FBI had possessed this information for quite some time.[”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History

“Mike tried to downplay what it would take to overcome the DOJ and FBI’s opposition, telling Dick, “You know what? It’s okay. O’Sullivan may be the big dog in New England, but we’re from Oklahoma, and we are going to prosecute this murder in Tulsa County.”
― David B. Wheeler, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of The Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal In History