The clarification of our political ideas insensibly changes into and becomes indistinguishable from the history of political ideas.

One cannot refute what one has not thoroughly understood.

The silence of a wise man is always meaningful.

Education to perfect gentlemanship, to human excellence, liberal education consists in reminding oneself of human excellence, of human greatness.

Life is too short to live with any but the greatest books.

Nothing ought to be said or done which could create the impression that unbiased reconsideration of the most elementary premises of philosophy is a merely academic or historical affair.

For try as one may to expel nature with a hayfork, it will always come back.

If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.

Liberal education reminds those members of a mass democracy who have ears to hear, of human greatness.

It is as absurd to expect members of philosophy departments to be philosophers as it is to expect members of art departments to be artists.

The contemporary rejection of natural right leads to nihilism - nay, it is identical with nihilism.

It is an awfully sad misconception that librarians simply check books in and out. The library is the heart of a school, and without a librarian, it is but an empty shell.

Hunger of the body is altogether different from the shallow, daily hunger of the belly. Those who have known this kind of hunger cannot entirely love, ever again, those who have not.

If I had spent fourteen months in a small room with Jesus, I'd want to fist fight with him.

There's no saving me.

Marriage simplifies life and complicates the day.

You can't run a mule in the Kentucky Derby.

Midterm elections can be dreadfully boring, unfortunately.

Our future on this planet, exposed as it is to nuclear annihilation, depends one one single factor: humanity must make a moral about-face.

... a lively imagination can exercise itself most fully and creatively in conjuring up magnificent combinations.

Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there's somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, "Oh, you can't do that..."