The American people, I am convinced, really detest free speech. At the slightest alarm they are ready and eager to put it down.

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.

A good mother is irreplaceable.

Torture, including practices like waterboarding, violates the legal and moral standards of all civilized nations.

Future shock is the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.

I'm an armchair kind of guy, especially when it's raining, which it always is and always will be.

BlackBerrys are a wonderful tool. I'm very tenacious about keeping up with my kids, as they are with me.

Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences.

Nobody's going to fix the world for us, but working together, making use of technological innovations and human communities alike, we might just be able to fix it ourselves.

When I was young I knew I was deaf. I couldn't accept it.

Do you like what you're doing/would you do it some more/or will you stop once and wonder what you're doing it for?

If you want to cut down a tree, it is no use to climb into its branches.