To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.

Most American men are repressors.

I agree that [marriage] should be treated like a business deal. But every business deal has to have its own terms and its own kind of currency.

When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, unformed, vacillating character of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes.

Ideas are the greatest and most crucially practical power on earth.

There is no affirmation without the one who affirms. in this sense, everything to which you grant your love is yours

Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.