There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.

The purpose of philosophers is to show people what is right under their noses.

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.