النمل

"You just had to wait and the terrified game would enmesh itself without any assistance. Such was the first precept of spider philosophy: There is no better combat technique than to wait for your enemy to destroy himself."

"SKELETON: Is it better to have the skeleton on the inside or the outside of the body? When the skeleton is on the outside, it forms a protective shell. The flesh is safe from external dangers but it becomes flabby, almost liquid, and when something sharp manages to pierce the shell, irreparable damage is done. When the skeleton forms only a fine, rigid rod inside the body, the quivering flesh is exposed to attack from all sides. The injuries are many and permanent, but it is precisely this apparent weakness that forces the muscle to grow hard and the fiber to resist. The flesh evolves. I have seen human beings who had forged "intellectual" armor to shield themselves from adversity. They seemed stronger than most. They said, "I couldn't care less," and laughed at everything, but when adversity managed to pierce their armor, it caused terrible damage. I have seen human beings suffer from the slightest adversity, the slightest annoyance, but still remain open-minded and sensitive to every to everything, learning something from each attack."

"OLD MAN: In Africa, people are sadder about the death of an old man than about that of a newborn baby. The old man represented a wealth of experience that might have benefited the tribe, whereas the newborn baby had not lived and could not even be aware of dying. In Europe, people are sad about the newborn baby because they think he might well have done wonderful things if he had lived. On the other hand, they pay little attention to the death of the old man, who had already lived his life anyway."