The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. Exposure to reality remains the nemesis of the great -- a little understood thing.

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.

Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.

Humor is richly rewarding to the person who employs it. It has some value in gaining and holding attention, but it has no persuasive value at all.

When everything else failed, we can still become immortal by making an enormous blunder.

If a man didn't make sense, the Scotch felt it was misplaced politeness to try to keep him from knowing it. Better that he be aware of his reputation, for this would encourage reticence which goes well with stupidity.

No intelligence system can predict what a government will do if it doesn't know itself.