Communists are frustrated capitalists.

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.

It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes. Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.