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.

Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.

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.

Better contraceptives will control population only if people will use them. A nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. We need to make vast changes in human behavior.

If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.

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.

The evolution of cultures appears to follow the pattern of the evolution of species. The many different forms of culture which arise correspond to the "mutations" of genetic theory. Some forms prove to be effective under prevailing circumstances and others not, and the perpetuation of the culture is determined accordingly.