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"While some of us burned on the edges of life, insatiable and straining to see more deeply in, he sat complacently at the centre and let life come to him - so much of it, evidently, that he could not keep track of his appointments."
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"Your problem is in thinking the sky's the limit. Why set limits?"

"Having this, we want that.Owning some, we want more.Standing here, we wish to be there.If it's impossible, we struggle to make it happen.Why are we like this? Why not be content with some, here, and now? Why is enough not enough? Because humans are ambitious creatures not meant to be idle or fruitless. We strive to learn, to grow, to achieve, to amass; therefore, we will never be content."

"Perfection may be an island out of reach, but setting your sails toward it makes for a magnificent voyage."

"A distaste for the new is not always fear of the unknown, but sometimes ambition. Some people don't like the new way simply because they never got a chance to master the old way."

"To wait at Monte Cristo for the purpose of watching like a dragon over the almost incalculable richs that had thus fallen into his possession satisfied not the cravings of his heart, which yearned to return to dwell among mankind, and to assume the rank, power, and influence which are always accorded to wealth - that first and greatest of all the forces within the grasp of man."

"Life is full of limitless opportunities. You ought to seek them."
Explore more quotes by John Updike

"Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone."

"Truth should not be forced; it should simply manifest itself, like a woman who has in her privacy reflected and coolly decided to bestow herself upon a certain man."

"Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself."

"To say that war is madness is like saying that sex is madness: true enough, from the standpoint of a stateless eunuch, but merely a provocative epigram for those who must make their arrangements in the world as given."

"Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey."

"What I'm going to do is pry every stinking tag off these f.ing chairs and make a f.ing collar and throw that cat right in Connor's puked-up face. Pale turd."
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