In short, we can only learn from our "betters".

True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.

The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth.

... always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certain form of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.

The student can read as fast as his mind will let him, not as slow as his eyes make him.

Don't try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.

The reader who fails to ponder, or at least mark, the words he does not understand is headed for disaster.

From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble.

Most of us are addicted to non-active reading. The outstanding fault of the non-active or undemanding reader is his inattention to words, and his consequent failure to come to terms with the author.

The mind can atrophy, like the muscles, if it is not used.

What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.

The essence of man is imperfection.

Oliver Sacks remains my hero to this day. He was one of the first medical writers I read. The other was Lewis Thomas, who is no longer alive but is just heroic to me.

I'm addicted to tattoos. I can't stop; I love them.

From time immemorial History has decreed that territory on this Planet Earth belongs to those powerful enough to take it and determined enough to keep it.

Take no moment for granted.

The ultimate goal of all goals is to be happy. If you want to be happy make someone else happy.

It was suicide. Others killed themselves with poison or with a revolver. I killed myself with minutes and hours.

Simply put, the most powerful state is the one that prevails in a dispute.

Globed from the atoms falling slow or swift I see the suns, I see the systems lift Their forms; and even the systems and the suns Shall go back slowly to the eternal drift.

God has given me a life far beyond anything I ever dreamed about. God is, man, God is something else man.