The greatest enemy of authority, therefore, is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter.

the right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right ... Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs.

... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.

The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.

They must remember that they are constantly on the run, and that the world's reality is actually expressed by their escape.

There is a strange interdependence between thoughtlessness and evil.

thinking beings have an urge to speak, speaking beings have an urge to think.