Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the Praetorian Guard ruled.

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.

The unfed mind devours itself.

We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

Persuading the people to vote against their own best interests has been the awesome genius of the American political elite from the beginning.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.

You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country.

That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.

To access your subconscious, is to access your 'higher-self.

Idolatry is always subject to the law of diminishing returns.

I buy myself a present whenever I don't get a role that I really wanted.

A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year.

The two most important tools an architect has are the eraser in the drawing room and the sledge hammer on the construction site.

And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]

I got so I was really just sick of sculpture.

But there's a bigger trend I'm seeing: people who used to enjoy blogging their lives are now moving to Twitter.

Do we really want to invest $50 billion of hard earned taxpayers money in what is essentially a video entertainment system?

The pleasures of mental agility are much overstated, inevitably - as it now appears to me - by those not exclusively dependent upon them.