One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.

I have no interest in understanding sheep, only eating them.

And be grateful. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real.

Human emotions are a gift from our animal ancestors. Cruelty is a gift humanity has given itself.

I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti

You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.

Whenever feasible, one should always try to eat the rude.

You must understand that when you are writing a novel you are not making anything up. It's all there and you just have to find it.

A census taker tried to quantify me once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a big Amarone. Go back to school, little Starling.

The tragedy is not to die, but to be wasted.

I'm giving serious thought into eating yor wife” - Hannibal Lecter

A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

I don't think school reform should be motivated by missionary zeal. I think it should be motivated by evidence of what works.

I'm not careful with my money at all these days. I buy people a lot of dinners!

Here is one of the best means to acquire humility; fix well in mind this maxim: One is as much as he is in the sight of God, and no more.

In man's struggle against the world, bet on the world.

To seek these things is lost labour; Geese in an oyle pot, fat Hogs among Jews, and Wine in a fishing net.

All our knowledge begins with the senses...

He who talks more is sooner exhausted.

The dream unites the grossest contradictions, permits impossibilities, sets aside the knowledge that influences us by day, and exposes us as ethically and morally obtuse.