“Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.”

One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.

We see through others only when we see through ourselves.

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.

Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.

One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.

It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.