What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance.

The best form of government is one that is dying, because that means it’s giving way to something else.

Irony - The modern mode: either the devil’s mark or the snorkel of sanity.

The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.

If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.

He didn’t really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself.

To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness - though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.

Men always want what they can’t have, or what other men want. It’s a scientific fact.

If life must not be taken too seriously - then so neither must death.

No community values entrepreneurship and small business more than the Hispanic community.

Enthusiasm is a form of social courage.

This was all very early on, there was no romance between them then,[Adolf] Hitler was living with Geli Raubal and made a very big display over her, that she was his great love and so forth.

I'm on the pursuit of awesomeness, excellence is the bare minimum.

The absence and suppression of justice can only open the way for extremists to exploit such a condition to perpetrate acts of violence against innocents.

Our minds have been built by selfish genes, but they have been built to be social, trustworthy and cooperative.

For the record, kid, Summoning a demon to kidnap her, not the best way to meet a woman. It usually backfires on you.

Make vegan friends! It's a tough row to hoe doing it alone.