Things do change. The only question is that since things are deteriorating so quickly, will society and man's habits change quickly enough?

The law of conservation of energy tells us we can't get something for nothing, but we refuse to believe it.

I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing-to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics-Well, they can do whatever they wish.

People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.

The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers.

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.

Politically popular speech has always been protected: even the Jews were free to say ‘Heil Hitler.’