Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong.

[A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.

The smallest atom of truth represents some man's bitter toil and agony; for every ponderable chunk of it there is a brave truth-seeker's grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in hell.

Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.

A great literature is thus chiefly the product of doubting and inquiring minds in revolt against the immovable certainties of the nation.

I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom... [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men.

It is almost impossible for an Anglo-Saxon to write of sex without being dirty.