Intellect is neither practical nor impractical; it is extra-practical.

A university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism - a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.

If for every error and every act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treason, many points of fascinating interpretation are open to the paranoid imagination.

Intellectualism, though by no means confined to doubters, is often the sole piety of the skeptic.

If there is anything more dangerous to the life of the mind than having no independent commitment to ideas, it is having an excess of commitment to some special and constricting idea.

We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.

To the reactionary ear every whispered criticism of the elite classes has always sounded like the opening shot of an uprising.

Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege.

As with the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of truth is itself gratifying whereas the consummation often turns out to be elusive.

The nation seems to slouch onward into its uncertain future like some huge inarticulate beast, too much attainted by wounds and ailments to be robust, but too strong and resourceful to succumb.

The role of third parties is to sting like a bee, then die.

Still, compared to him, compared to the people we descend from, I am free of history. I'm so free of history I have to get in a car and drive seven states to find it.

Her veins flowed with liquid poetry. I stole the words from her mouth with my kisses.

Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.

You end up as you deserve. In old age you must put up with the face, the friends, the health, and the children you have earned.

Neatness of phrase is so closely akin to wit that it is often accepted as its substitute.

When you know you have a certain amount of work to finish, you just don't allow yourself to get sick again.

I think Aleppo is a disaster, humanitarian-wise.

Writing a book is the most difficult, anxiety-prone aspect of my life because the words that I put on paper are very serious to me.

If anything needs love it is reality, for it is reality that lacks it the most - I doubt that it was ever loved.

Like adverts, today's works of art aim to create a brand, even if they have no product to sell except themselves.