My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.

Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story.

The politer the society, the greater the lies it requires.

It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.

My father required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.

You ask men in office to be honest; I ask them to serve the public.