Quotes from Barry Eisler

Sometimes, you have to remind yourself the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Fat droplets of rain started spattering against the city's concrete skin, against the glass windows of its eyes. A few people with umbrellas opened them. The rest ran for cover. I walked on, through it all. I tried to think of it as a baptism, a new beginning. Maybe it was. But what a lonely resurrection.

Better a wise r?nin, I decided, than a naïve samurai.

Had I not known that I was dead already I would have mourned my loss of life. —last words of Ota Dokan, scholar of military arts and poet, 1486

Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind's equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They'll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive.

We could go from bliss and harmony to anger and recriminations as fast and with as little warning as a tropical storm. What made it bearable, what made it good, was that the foul weather would pass with equal suddenness, usually leaving something glorious in its wake.

Think about it. Ever look in a closet or under the bed, when you're alone in the house, to ensure an intruder isn't hiding there? Now, if you really believed the Man in the Black Ski Mask was lurking in those places, would you behave the same way? Of course not. But it's more comfortable to believe the danger only in the abstract, and to act on it only halfheartedly. That's denial.

If you want to create opportunities, you have to create movement.

If you knew at the outset what you understood at the end, would you make the same choices, take the same risks, accept the same sacrifices? No. No one would. You can't appreciate the weight of that burden until after you've assumed it. You can't comprehend what it really means.

Only teasing', Death seemed to be saying over his shoulder with a rictus smile, with good humor and an oddly paternal affection. 'Take care of yourself, okay? We'll play again.

You look like a man who's acquired some wisdom over the years. Can you tell me, why are women so difficult? I mean, I love them, but why?" The old guy shrugged. "Because they're people. It's not women who are difficult. It's people.

Sometimes I think the urge to believe in our own worldview is our most powerful intellectual imperative, the mind's equivalent of feeding, fighting, and fornicating. People will eagerly twist facts into wholly unrecognizable shapes to fit them into existing suppositions. They'll ignore the obvious, select the irrelevant, and spin it all into a tapestry of self-deception, solely to justify an idea, no matter how impoverished or self-destructive. And

What was that Churchill saying? "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." That's what this felt like.

Gerçek ÅŸuydu ki, kötü an?lar asla silinmiyordu. Hay?r, en fazla duraks?yorlard?; aç?lmay? bekleyen bir kutunun içinde bekler gibi duruyor, Bizi özledin mi? Merak etme, hala buraday?z! Ve hiçbir yere gitmiyoruz! diyorlard?.

There was a pause. She said, "I hate you." I nodded. "I know.

First was the fewer, not less. Now it was the care in avoiding a preposition at the end of a sentence. An educated man, presumably. Precise. Apparently fussy about small-minded rules, perhaps to compensate for a willingness to ignore large ones.

The insult was calculated. Whether this guy was an amateur or a professional, he would perceive himself as the latter, and would now be invested in proving it to me. Interrogators call the technique ego down.

If you wanted to understand the mentality of most Washington insiders, all you had to do was put yourself in the mind of an insecure teenager, at which point it all began to make sense.

I paused before the door and used the SoldierVision to confirm the hallway was clear before opening it.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light; I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Do all the people who know me know me better than I know myself?

mono no aware, the sadness of being human

He was blushing. Christ, the kid was so transparent. "Harry, are you going to tell me you've got a girlfriend?" I asked. The blush deepened, and I laughed. "I'll be damned," I said. "Good for you." He looked at me, checking to see whether I was going to tease him. "She's not exactly my girlfriend." "Well, never mind the taxonomy. How did you meet her?" "Work.

Well, the club is open until three in the morning and she works every day. So, by the time she gets home…" "I get the picture," I said. Though in fact, it was a little hard to imagine Harry with an attachment that didn't have an Ethernet cable and a mouse. He was an introverted, socially stunted guy, with no contacts I knew of outside of his day job, which he kept at arm's length in any event, and me. Conditions that had always made him useful.