"The other day I was with a reporter and a society lady who were seeing the town. The lady asked me how I would get her diamond pin. It was fastened in such a way that to get it, strong arm work would be necessary. I explained how I would "put the mug on her" while my husky pal went through her. 'But,' she said, 'that would hurt me.' As if the grafters cared! What a selfish lady to be always thinking of herself!" "Life is the basis of philosophy. Philosophy is an emanation from our daily routine. After a convict has paced his cell a few thousand times he sometimes has an idea. Philosophy results from life put through a mental process, just as opium, when subjected to a chemical experiment, produces laudanum. Why, therefore, is not life far stronger than a narcotic?" "I believe in platonic love, for it has been in my own life. A woman always wants love, whether she is eighteen or eighty--real love. Many is the time I have seen the wistful look in some woman's eye when she saw that it was only good fellowship or desire on my part." "In this age of commerce there is only one true friendship, the kind that comes through business." "An old adage has it that all things come to him who waits. Yes: poverty, old age and death. The successful man is he who goes and gets it." "If thy brother assaults you, do not weep, nor pray for him, nor turn the other cheek, but assail him with the full strength of your muscles, for man at his best is not lovable, nor at his worst, detestable." "There is more to be got in Germany, judging from what Dutch Lonzo used to say, than in England or America, only the Dutchmen are too thick-headed to find it out. A first class gun in Germany would be ranked as a ninth-rater here." "Grafters are like the rest of the world in this: they always attribute bad motives to a kind act." "From flim-flam (returning short change) to burglary is but a step, provided one has the nerve." "Why would a woman take to him (a sober, respectable man but lacking in temperament) unless she wanted a good home?" "If there is anything detestable, it is a grafter who will steal an overcoat in the winter time." "'Look for the woman.' A fly-cop gets many a tip from some tid-bit in whom a grafter has reposed confidence." * * * * * I did not do, as I have said, any more grafting than was necessary during these seven months of liberty; but I observed continually, living in an opium dream, and my pals were more and more amusing to me. When I thought about myself and my superior intelligence, I was sad, but I thought about myself as little as possible. I preferred to let my thoughts dwell on others, who I saw were a a fine line of cranks and rogues.