Why do people feel guilty about TV? What is wrong with it? Just this: it shuts out all the wonderful things of which the mind is capable, leaving it drugged in a state of thoughtless stupor.

It is throwing our life away, to think of the wrong things.

Careerism is the determination to reign in hell rather than serve in heaven.

All scholarship, like all science, is an ongoing, open-ended discussion in which all conclusions are tentative forever, the principal value and charm of the game being the discovery of the totally unexpected.

Being self-taught is no disgrace; but being self-certified is another matter.

And the issue is never the merits of the evidence but always the jealous rivalry of the contestants to see which would be the official light unto the world. Right down to the present day we have been the spectators of a foolish contest between equally vain and bigoted rivals.

At UCLA I quickly learned the knack of getting grades, a craven surrender to custom, since grades had little to do with learning.