[I am not] the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

Given the nature of spiders, webs are inevitable. And given the nature of human beings, so are religions. Spiders can't help making fly-traps, and men can't help making symbols. That's what the human brain is there for - the turn the chaos of given experience into a set of manageable symbols.

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

The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is to be proved right.

Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unshown marble of great sculpture. The silent bear no witness against themselves.

The finest works of art are precious, among other reasons, because they make it possible for us to know, if only imperfectly and for a little while, what it actually feels like to think subtly and feel nobly.

In any race between human numbers and natural resources, time is against us.