Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

Medical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.

Dictators can always consolidate their tyranny by an appeal to patriotism.

Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

I tell you Schoonmaker she doesn't know what she has. That's the heart of it. She's like some wild creature who hasn't a clue the worth of its coat.

No one could ever meet death for his country without the hope of immortality.

When after many battles past Both tir'd with blows make peace at last What is it after all the people get? Why! taxes widows wooden legs and debt.

Many times what cannot be refuted by arguments can be parried by laughter.

Look at that,' she whispered, and then after a moment: 'I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.

Being seventy is not a sin. It's not a joy, either.

Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.

If God changes your heart, be willing to change your plans

I think the issue of clergy sexual abuse sparked people to look at their faith in a different way.