I made the journey to knowledge like dogs who go for walks with their masters, a hundred times forward and backward over the same territory; and when I arrived I was tired.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

your lack of knowledge may not for you but surely it is dangerous for your child because you cannot teach them which you your self do not know

The mind is masterpiece.

I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's.

I do think music sounds better when it's on tape and more simply recorded.

Only five NATO countries, including the United States, are currently meeting their minimum requirement to spend 2% of GDP on defense.

The devil comes and soon my subconscious and conscious might start to brawl. As this cunning demon takes me as its voodoo doll.

A very, very impressive director, Tomas Alfredson. It's only his second film [ 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'], but he's a real find.

I’m a total atheist, and for me it’s just about trying to find something that rises above the banal day-to-day bullshit of living.

We identify New York with the great bridges and tunnels and roadways and subway system and so forth.

Actually, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself. 2:23:11 is a very good time - a very good time for a woman that is.