“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.”

I always feel how necessary you are to me. But when you are absent, I become still more sensible of it and look around in vain for that satisfaction which you alone can bestow.

Men are reasoning rather than reasonable animals.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold the bill of rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?

Nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of Government.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.

The masses are asses.

Have we not already seen enough of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle theories which have amused us with promises of an exemption from the imperfections, weaknesses and evils incident to society in every shape?

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

The pains taken to preserve peace include a proportional responsibility that equal pains be taken to be prepared for war.

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

The art of reading is to skip judiciously.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

The process of making a movie is what I love. I thrive on that. It’s an exciting miracle, a mad adventure. I love being part of it.

Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.

The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado.

Fame attracts lunatics.

A man who wants to mutilate himself is certainly damned, isn’t he?

It was the voice of mad seas, roaring immense, That shattered your infant breast, too soft, too human.

The ethical view of the universe involves us in so many cruel and absurd contradictions that I have come to suspect that the aim of creation cannot be ethical at all.

I want your madness, only if you promise to be mad about me.