Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

I'm an indoors person. I'm not afraid of the outdoors and I penetrate it easily and cheerfully. However, I must admit I like Central Park better than the wilderness, and I like the canyons of Manhattan better than Central Park, and I like the interior of my apartment better than the canyons of Manhattan, and I like my two rooms better with the shades down at all times than with the shades up. I'm not an agoraphobe at all, but I am a claustrophile, if you see the distinction.

I don't believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.

Society is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience.

I figure that if God actually does exist, he is big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.

Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be replaced by a computer.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."