Intelligence takes chances with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary.

You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.

Good subjects must feel guilty. The guilt begins as a feeling of failure. The good autocrat provides many opportunities for failure in the populace.

The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not...yet, I occurred.

People don't vote. Instinct tells them it's useless.

What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking-there’s the real danger.

The surest way to keep a secret is to make people believe they already know the answer.