Dark Rivers of the Heart

They said there was no rest for the wicked. In fact, there was rest neither for the virtuous nor the wicked, nor for guys like Billy, who were uncommitted regarding the whole idea of virtue versus wickedness and who were just trying to do their jobs.

Greater self-awareness,” he’d told Rocky on a night when sleep wouldn’t come, “doesn’t make a species any happier, pal. If it did, we’d have fewer psychiatrists and barrooms...

One man’s idea of perfect order is another man’s chaos. One man’s vision of perfect beauty is another man’s notion of deformity.

No one's more dangerous than a man who's convinced of his own moral superiority.

You've got to remember whatever happens-it's only life, we all get through it

On the road that I have taken, one day, walking, I awaken, amazed to see where I have come, where I’m going, where I’m from.

I’ve lost all faith in psychiatry. Freud and Jung—they were both full of shit.

Even bad guys,” Roy said patiently, “deserve compassion. This man has suffered. You can see that. I need to get my hands on him, yes, and be sure that society’s safe from him—but he still deserves to be treated with compassion, with as much mercy as possible.

envy is second only to self-pity as the most dangerous of all emotions.

...he knew human lives were free of the chains of fate except in one regard: It was the human destiny to be free.

...the pain of speaking from the heart was always, in the end, more endurable than the suffering that was the price of silence.

The banshee eucalyptuses whisper-wailed complaints of eternity's indifference...

Greater self-awareness...doesn't make a species happier, pal. If it did, we'd have fewer psychiatrists and barrooms than you dogs have - and it's not that way, is it?