# Quote — William Tenn, The Wooden Star

> Don’t be bitter, young sir. If you want to go on living you have to be alert. And you can’t be alert and bitter at the same time.

- Author: [William Tenn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn.md)
- Book: [The Wooden Star](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-wooden-star.md)
- Page: 89
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Tenn#The_Wooden_Star_(1968)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-wooden-star/dont-be-bitter

## More from this book

> The pull of fashion has always been that of the stampeding herd.

p. 224 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-wooden-star/the-pull-of-fashion.md)

> It had taken a couple of billion years to produce me. In that couple of billion years, I had millions upon millions of ancestors. Slime-like ancestors, jelly-like ancestors, water-breathing ancestors, air-breathing ancestors, ancestors that floated, that swam, that crawled, that ran, that climbed, that finally walked. And all of those ancestors, no matter how different, had one thing in common.
>
> They had survived long enough to have descendants. Other species didn’t and their lines were extinct, bare bones in rock strata. But no matter how scarce food got, no matter what enemies they faced, what unprecedented natural upheavals they had to adjust to, my ancestors somehow managed to pull through, and have offspring. That’s how I happen to be here.

p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-wooden-star/it-had-taken.md)

> “Creatures trained in warfare are what he calls ‘philosophically anti-life.’”

p. 110 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-tenn/the-wooden-star/creatures-trained-in-warfare.md)