it's a rare day when she speaks in anything but platitudes--all those exhausted phrases and hand-me-down ideas that cram the dump sites of contemporary wisdom

The truth of the story lies in the details.

As long as a man had the courage to reject what society told him to do, he could live life on his own terms. To what end? To be free. But free to what end? To read books, to write books, to think.

All depression has its roots in self-pity, and all self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too seriously.

The mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd. Accommodation to the absurd readmits adults to the mysterious realm inhabited by children.

[Students] often have a "We can figure this out - don't just tell us" attitude. In that way, they can be less patient with "traditional" approaches to teaching.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

Everyone needs a warm personal enemy or two to keep him free from rust in the movable parts of his mind

I try to have my voice be heard, but not on a regular basis on TV.

Government doesn't have to be the enemy, but too much government has produced a new kind of inequality in America: opportunity inequality.

Acting is what happens on the way.

People who care nothing about money probably exist or we wouldn't hear so much about them. But I've never encountered one in the flesh.

Paying isn’t wrong, and being paid isn’t wrong. Trampling other people’s freedom and community is wrong, so the free software movement aims to put an end to it, at least in the area of software.