Kindness is the beginning of cruelty.

My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.

Control the coinage and the courts — let the rabble have the rest.

Argument closes off the doors of the senses. It always masks violence. Continued too long, argument always leads to violence.

Once human beings realize something can be done, they're not satisfied until they've done it.

Memory never recaptures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably fall short.

The difference between sentiment and being sentimental is the following: Sentiment is when a driver swerves out of the way to avoid hitting a rabbit on the road. Being sentimental is when the same driver, when swerving away from the rabbit, hits a pedestrian.