The life of man in this world is like the life of a fly in a room filled with 100 boys, each armed with a fly-swatter.

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.

The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

She must love me, to worry about me. She must still be capable of love.

If you escape from a necessary fight, pray you will live long enough to wait for and deal with the same challenge that must be settled.

The object of oratory alone is not truth but persuasion.

From birth to death, anyone can fish. I just think it's fantastic to see old people going fishing with young people and teaching them things. I'm very, very critical.

Living on Earth has always been a dangerous way to spend your time.

Lesson number one: Pay attention to the intrusion of the camera.

...my camera is my friend, and I take it everywhere.

The opposite of heterosexual desire is the eroticising of sameness, a sameness of power, equality and mutuality. It is homosexual desire.

That which we can't remember, we will repeat.