Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

You can't love someone just by looking at them. That is lust. Not saying love can't come fast, but it doesn't come first.

An excess of law inescapably weakens the rule of law.

My writing has a lot of surprising twists.

Die before you die, there is no chance after.

A true warrior can only serve others, not himself...When you become a mercenary, you're just a bully with a gun.

I am not a second option person. It is that or nothing. If it is not the way I see it I prefer not to see it.

In The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson turns 'making the personal public' into a romantic, intellectual wet dream. A gorgeous book, inventive, fearless, and full of heart.

When you're a movie star and you're young, you are always playing someone who's a better fighter, a better lover, a better everything than you.

American culture is often so self-consumed that we often think that our problems are just our problems.

Our call is to be God's agents, to rescue not only the human race but the whole of creation.