Suddenly to realise that one is sitting, damned, among the other damned--it is a most disquieting experience; so disquieting thatmost of us react to it by immediately plunging more deeply into our particular damnation in the hope, generally realized, that we may be able, at least for a time, to stifle our revolutionary knowledge.

The natural rhythm of human life is routine punctuated by orgies.

People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.

You got rid of them. Yes, that’s just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether ‘tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them… But you don’t do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It’s too easy.

Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.

The best way to find things out is not to ask questions at all. If you fire off a question, it is like firing off a gun - bang it goes

Since Mozart's day composers have learned the art of making music throatily and palpitatingly sexual.