# Quote — Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis

> Even when you self-destruct, you want to fail more, lose more, die more than others, stink more than others. In the old tribes the chief who destroyed more of his property than the other chiefs was the most powerful.

- Author: [Don DeLillo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo.md)
- Book: [Cosmopolis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cosmopolis_(novel)#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis/even-when-you

## More from this book

> A poem bared the moment to things he was not normally prepared to notice.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis/a-poem-bared.md)

> It is in me to hurt someone and I haven't always known this. The act and depth of writing will tell me if I'm capable.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis/it-is-in.md)

> To know and not to act is not to know.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/cosmopolis/to-know-and.md)