All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.

There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it's almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed. ... These things are so ancient within us that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies... It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking.

If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.

The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.

There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man - with human flesh.

War is behavior with roots in the single cell of the primeval seas. Eat whatever you touch or it will eat you.