A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole, and a carefree superlative has the power to destroy, for the reader, the object of the writer's enthusiasm.

The young writer should learn to spot them: words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning, but that soon burst in the air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.

Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.

Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not security councils that can stop war only by waging it... Where does security lie, anyway - security against the thief, a bad man, the murderer? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government.

Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour.

People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.