“Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”

Frankly, I’d like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry.

He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody

The laws of nature are only as immutable as the minds which promote them. Ignorance of the law is 9/10ths of the law. Just because you aren’t paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don’t see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.

He was never without misery, and never without hope.

You’re an intelligent person of great moral character who has taken a very courageous stand. I’m an intelligent person with no moral character at all, so I’m in an ideal position to appreciate it.

All of my books deal in a very rough, rude fashion with subjects about which there are great conflicts of opinion.

They agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

The question is: what is a sane man to do in an insane society?

Be glad you’re even alive. Be furious you’re going to die.

I’ve only had four ideas for a novel in my life, and I’ve written all of them.

I think in every country that there is at least one executive who is scared of going crazy.

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.

Destiny is a good thing to accept when it’s going your way. When it isn’t, don’t call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Nothing is, everything is becoming.

Wise men change, fools stay the same.

Once you have been touched by magic, you are forever changed. You leave a trail.

Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

It’s time for us as a people to start making some changes.

Young men’s minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.