Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.

I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.

A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other.

When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.

The only geniuses produced by the chaos of society are those who do something about it. Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.

Any single historical event is too complex to be adequately known by anyone. It transcends all the intellectual capacities of men. Our practice is to wait until a sufficient number of details have been forgotten. Of course things seem simpler then! Our memories work that way; we retain the facts which are easiest to think about.

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.