Roald Dahl Quotes

Self preservation is the first law of nature and governments.

With acting, I've always gotten by in life acting in situations. I'm a small person. I didn't have a chance to be a bully. But I could always act myself out of tough situations.

It is hard to bite the hands that feed you, especially when you are competing for food.

I have lived too long to cherish many illusions about the essential high-mindedness of men when brought into stark confrontation with the issue of control over their security, and their property interests.

Hey, you want to hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you.

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.

What I try to do is never to hurt anybody else and figure if I don't, then I'm not likely to get hurt myself.

Man's unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.

The world is a Hobbesian state of nature in which the struggle for domination is the very essence of international life.

My femininity is always something I've tried to preserve in this dog-eat-dog world.

All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.

Never let people see what you want, because they will not let you have it. Never let anybody see what you feel, because it gives them too much power. You're probably better off not showing weakness whenever you can avoid it, because they'll go for you.

It is ingrained in all living creatures, first of all, to preserve their own safety, to guard against what is harmful, to strive for what is advantageous.

Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.

The one sure way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured.

An individual thinking himself injured, makes more noise than a State.

There is no such thing as eternal friendship or eternal hostility– only eternal interests.

I do not give a damn about the dead. They died for the Party and the Party can decide what it wants. I practice a live man's politics, for the living.

All Israel wants to do is survive.

When you're afraid, you look to amass power to defend yourself, not realizing that can also be corrupting.

In order to survive, I created a certain type of aura about myself that I was the baddest chick walking down the street. Anytime somebody underestimates me, Thug Rose comes out.

I was very shy and had low self-esteem; the only way to stop yourself getting beaten up was to turn your hand to being an idiot. At the beginning, it was survival, and after that, it became second nature.

You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you.

He is a fool who tries to match his strength with the stronger.

The strong were always eating the weak.