Chuck Palahniuk Quotes

What I learned in the military is that gossip starts early and it stays forever.

The penalty may be removed, the crime is eternal.

Nobody wants to see someone's life ruined over a small-time lapse in judgment.

A man's head is not like a scallion, which will grow again if you cut it off; if you cut it off wrongly, then even if you want to correct your error, there is no way of doing it.

This is a hard and precarious world, where every mistake and infirmity must be paid for in full.

No one is now what they were before the war. There’s just no getting any of it back.

But once that string gets cut, kid, you can't uncut it. Do you get what I'm saying?

The harm done is often difficult to repair.

Because many of us make mistakes that can have bad consequences, some intellectuals believe that it is the role of government to intervene and make some of our decisions for us. From what galaxy government is going to hire creatures who do not make mistakes is a question they leave unanswered.

Mistakes quickly pile up and coalesce into a reputation, and a reputation is hard to shake.

It will be the mistake of your life if you go into print in your own defence [sic]. Your denial will reach a new set of people andstart them to talking, while the ones who read the original charges will never see the refutation of them.

I made mistakes and I broke the law and I'm more than willing to pay a price for that. But there's a price beyond that that my children have paid, and that's not what was supposed to happen.

If we don't go far enough fast enough, the damage we inflict could take centuries to undo - if it can be undone at all.

The truth was, history repeated itself on a daily basis; mistakes were made over and over. People were haunted by what they had done, and by what they hadn't had time to do.

The welfare state shields people from the consequences of their own mistakes, allowing irresponsibility to continue and to flourish among ever wider circles of people.

It's what each of us sows, and how, that gives us character and prestige.

My history is long, and not much of it is good. I can't erase it, but I'm determined not to make another mistake. Not when the stakes are high, not when it comes to you.

Listen much, keep silent when in doubt, and always take heed of the tongue; thou wilt make few mistakes. See much, beware of pitfalls, and always give heed to thy walk; thou wilt have little to rue. If thy words are seldom wrong, thy deeds leave little to rue, pay will follow.

You're the one who has to live with your choice, everyone else will get over it, move on, no matter what you decide. But you never will

Measured against eternity, our time on earth is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever.

Some people there's no getting over.

If the living are haunted by the dead, then the dead are haunted by their own mistakes.

That's the problem with folks nowadays. Nobody takes responsibility for their actions. Make a mistake and you pay for it. That's life.

You put faith in people sometimes that can't deliver for you. And those are mistakes and you have to... don't work with them again. It's pretty easy.