Escapist creativity is that which lacks encounter.

It is highly significant and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in such identification through one's own sensitivity with suffering of one's fellow human beings." (p. 16-17)

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

Poets may be delightful creatures in the meadow or the garret, but they are menaces on the assembly line.

Consciousness is the awareness that emerges out of the dialectical tension between possibilities and limitations.

Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love o fidelity. It is the foundations that underlies and gives reality to all other virtue and personal values. (p. 13)

The battle with the gods thus hinges on our own mortality! Creativity is a yearning for immortality.

The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt. (p. 21)

Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundations that underlies and gives reality to all other virtue and personal values. (p. 13)

Just as the poet is a menace to conformity, he is also a constant threat to political dictators. He is always on the verge of blowing up the assembly line of political power.

the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.

Have you ever noticed the softness of a kitten's feet? - they are like raspberries to hold in one's hand.

I became more and more interested in the mechanics of creativity.

In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.

I thought the objects we value least because they were ubiquitous were actually the most extraordinary.

If my son or your son handled classified information the way that Hillary Clinton did, they'd be court marshaled.

The will to originality is not the will to be peculiar and unlike anybody else; it means the desire to derive one's consciousness from its primary source.

But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn.

It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not always be the same.