If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well.

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.

The unfed mind devours itself.

We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

Persuading the people to vote against their own best interests has been the awesome genius of the American political elite from the beginning.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.

You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country.

That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.

Listening is a discipline. It’s all about being present at that moment in time.

A boy has other people do the talking for him

I'm not the one with the problem its the world who seems to have a problem with me

Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one's level of peace of mind.

I am well aware that I am the 'umblest person going. . . . My mother is likewise a very 'umble person. We live in a 'umble abode.

You cannot learn to skate without making yourself ridiculous - the ice of life is slippery.

Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means.

Young people, take heart: the older you get, the fewer commandments you will have the strength to break.

In a way you can feel that the poet actually is looking over your shoulder, and you say to yourself, now, how would this go for him? Would this do or not?

Republicans have to be relieved. Given all the bad news this White House has faced, at least the president's hemorrhaging has stopped.