The Drifters

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

I can no longer take war or promotion or big income or a large house seriously. I reject empire and Vietnam and placing a man on the moon. I deny time payments and looking like the girl next door and church weddings and a great deal more. If you want to blame such rejection on grass, you can do so. I charge it to awakening.

Don't put off what you can do today because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.

They’ll hear about your husband’s fortune. The suitors will begin to gather, and I want you to promise me this. Whenever one of them proposes, as they will, Doris must say rapturously, ‘Oh, David! All my life I’ve wanted to live in Israel.’ When he hears that she intends to live there instead of bringing him to the United States, you’ll see his interest evaporate. I said evaporate. It vanishes.” He waved his hands violently back and forth across his face to indicate total abolishment.

The Arabs can lose every war, if only they win the last one.

The Arabs can lose every war, if only they win the last one. The Jews have gained nothing if they win all the wars but lose the last one.

Negroes were drafted, white men weren’t; the poor were hauled off to war, the rich weren’t; the stupid were shot at, the bright boys weren’t.

A sensible man never brags about two things. How lovable his first wife was and how good his last school was.

She was always pleased when a young man said “I can’t” rather than “I won’t,” because the former indicated a moral conviction that could not be set aside, whereas the latter implied mere personal preference without a solid footing.

It's the good minds that find difficulty in committing themselves

Tanks are nothing unless they’re kept moving. Because if you leave them static, a determined team can destroy them every time.

In this country we get stuck with taxes, but in the old country we used to get stuck with bayonets.