Where a reputation for intolerance is more feared than a reputation for vice itself, all manner of evil may be expected to flourish.

When every benefit received is a right, there is no place for good manners, let alone for gratitude.

A curious reversal in the locus of moral concern has taken place: people feel responsible for everything except for what they do.

Feeling good about yourself is not the same thing as doing good. Good policy is more important than good feelings.

If the history of the 20th Century proved anything, it proved that however bad things were, human ingenuity could usually find a way to make them worse.

Equality of Ugliness: If we can't all live in a beautiful place we must all live in an ugly place.

There is nothing that an intellectual less likes to change than his mind, or a politician his policy.

Do I grow cleverer with age, or does the world grow more stupid?

To regret religion is to regret Western civilization.

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

It is only by having desire thwarted, and thereby learning to control it — in other words, by becoming civilized — that men become fully human.

If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.

To lead solely on the behalf of those being led is the utter pinnacle of fatherhood, and it is sad that so few ever stand on the summit.

Meditation is not hard to understand. Anyone who knows how to worry knows how to meditate. Worriers are skilled in the meditation process but are meditating on the wrong kind of thoughts.

I certainly don't want a child of mine to be famous, or anyone I was very close to who isn't yet... It's the worst thing to be trapped in your house not be able to leave.

Natural light consistently fosters innovation, as does the avoidance of disturbances from noise and extreme temperatures.

If you want to know the world, sometimes you have to get out and roll around.

I thought that jealousy was an idea. It isn't. It's a pain. But I didn't feel as they do in a Broadway melodrama. I didn't want to kill anybody. I just wanted to die.

The shelf life of a movie actor or actress is so short, it's like milk.

There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.

whether they write poems or don't write poems, poets are best.