James Morrow

Bitterness is not a philosophy, friend. Outrage is not an ethic. Stop counting corpses and reach a truce with the universe, or you’ll be stuck on the dung heap forever.

To close the gap between jurisprudence and justice would require a canon of a hundred million laws.

Sweetie, if I’ve learned anything during my ten years at sea, it’s this. Never confuse your captain with God.

Love does strange things to a man’s sense of proportion, which is why—contrary to rumor—it is by no means the Devil’s least favorite emotion.

As usual, He underestimated the human potential for self-deception.

In my protracted sojourn on this planet, Mr. Candle, I have come to value three commodities above all others: good books, decent claret, and worthy opponents.

There’s nothing quite so pernicious as wishful thinking.

Although covetousness is not my only flaw, it seems to cause me more pain than all my other sins combined.

“Myriad contradictory worlds,” lectured Professor Jerome Delacato, “forever splitting off from each other like branches on a tree, so that, somewhere out there, I am presently giving a lecture explaining how the many-worlds hypothesis cannot possibly be true.”

He was a devout believer in the second chance. To the man who asked, “What’s the point of closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen?” Murray would answer, “The point is that the door is now closed.”

Babies are like kittens, Julie, they grow into something much more sinister.

The problem is, only a few people get to be scientists. You see the dilemma? Given the choice between a truth they can appreciate and a lie they can live, most people will take you-know-what.