No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself.

That's the trouble with languages. They have to be learned.

Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die

Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.

We presuppose two things: that there is yet to be learned infinitely more than is now known, and that man can learn it.

Never accept the initial premise of the opposition.

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.

Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.

Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

Strangers take a long time to become acquainted, particularly when they are from the same family.

Now, at the end of three years struggle the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it.

To want to meet an author because you like his books is as ridiculous as wanting to meet the goose because you like pate de foie gras.

I like to work around identification for the audience, and when there's a grown-up or a moral figure or something like that, people tend to go there.

Leaning to the side but you can't speed through; 2 miles an hour so everybody sees you.

I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains.

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.

Most important thing about your diet is who cooks it, a human or a corporation.

Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences.

As If I could just turn my feelings off like a faucet.