Existentialism is the kind of philosophy that makes for legendary children.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

The sacred lamp, shall never cease to burn to give light.

When you get older, you know that life’s mysteries are revealed in the fullness of time. All you have to do is wait, watch, and be amazed.

My husband was just OK looking. I was in labor and I said to him, 'What if she's ugly? You're ugly.'

Opportunity may knock only once but it passes by your door every day.

There are no permanent alliances, only permanent interests.

Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions.

Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic.

Winston Churchill was not entirely British. His mother was American, making Sir Winston part Iroquois Indian.

Without strong encryption, you will be spied on systematically by lots of people.