Portable Wisdom

Author: Dashiell Hammett

Brief Info: American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories; also a screenwriter and political activist

Years Lived: 1894-1961

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Quotations


Successful Planning

The outcome of successful planning always looks like luck to saps.

From the book The Dain Curse

— 1957


Thinking's a Dizzy Business

Nobody thinks clearly, no matter what they pretend. Thinking’s a dizzy business, a matter of catching as many of those foggy glimpses as you can and fitting them together the best you can. That’s why people hang on so tight to their beliefs and opinions; because, compared to the haphazard way in which they’re arrived at, even the goofiest opinion seems wonderfully clear, sane and self-evident. And if you let it get away from you, then you’ve got to dive back into that foggy muddle to wrangle yourself out another to take its place.

From the book The Dain Curse

— 1930

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