The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

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.

[T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68)

She had no doubt in her mind what he was going to do. And while her ever-elusive shred of common sense squealed, “no, ” every thing else in her shouted, “Bring it on.

The pure power of a life can manifest as beatitude, or as an unspeakable, sheer violence...

Nothing they design ever gets in the way of a work of art.

My affections are easily swayed and I can be very unfaithful.

The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. Science brings men nearer to God.

I didn't like where I once was, so I promised myself I wouldn't be back there.

A dream without ambition is like a car without gas... you're not going anywhere.

With comedy, you never know until you put it in front of an audience. You shoot it and a year later you have no idea if it's going to work. And then you get the response. It's great when it's good.

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living color