Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven.

There can hardly be a stranger commodity in the world than books. Printed by people who don't understand them; sold by people who don't understand them; bound, criticized and read by people who don't understand them; and now even written by people who don't understand them.

I am confident of my ability to demonstrate that one can sometimes believe in something and yet not believe in it. Nothing is less fathomable than the systems that motivate our actions.

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.

A book which, above all others in the world, should be forbidden, is a catalogue of forbidden books.

It is said that truth comes from the mouths of fools and children: I wish every good mind which feels an inclination for satire would reflect that the finest satirist always has something of both in him.