The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow - by the tilt of the social landscape.

There can be no mass movement without some deliberate misrepresentation of facts.

America is still the best country for the common man -- white or black ... if he can't make it here he won't make it anywhere else.

Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.

Give people pride and they'll live on bread and water, bless their exploiters, and even die for them. Self-surrender is a transaction of barter: we surrender our sense of human dignity, our judgement, or moral and aesthetic sense for pride. If there is pride in being free, we are ready to die for liberty. If there is pride to be derived from an identification with a leader, we grovel in the dust before a Napoléon, Hitler or Stalin and are ready to die for him. If there is a distinction in suffering we search for martyrdom as for hidden treasure.

There is a radicalism in all getting, and a conservatism in all keeping. Lovemaking is radical, while marriage is conservative.

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.