The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it, the speed of his acceptance.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.

Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.

Walden is the only book I own, although there are some others unclaimed on my shelves. Every man, I think, reads one book in his life, and this is mine. It is not the best book I ever encountered, perhaps, but it is for me the handiest, and I keep it about me in much the same way one carries a handkerchief - for relief in moments of defluxion or despair.

The most puzzling thing about TV is the steady advance of the sponsor across the line that has always separated news from promotion, entertainment from merchandising. The advertiser has assumed the role of originator, and the performer has gradually been eased into the role of peddler.

A schoolchild should be taught grammar—for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy.