There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.

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.

If we didn't have nightmares, we wouldn't wake up every morning chasing our dreams.

Horror is about fear, about rising dread and unknown terrors, and in the face of such nightmares, the acts of good people can seem insignificant.

If facts conflict with a theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts.

To me, it's normal. We summered in Vermont, and me and my sister Ilyasah went to one of the top ten schools in the country [the Hackley School].

Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth.

I don't think of myself as a rebel; I just say what I think.

Art is communication spoken by man for humanity in a language raised above the everyday happening.

Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear.

There's been not a dime spent on marketing for any record I've ever put out.

"What are you thinking?" he asked curiously. I looked up into his deep gold eyes, became befuddled, and, as usual, blurted out the truth. "I'm trying to figure out what you are."