War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

All the geniuses I ever met were so just part of the time. To qualify, you only have to be great once, you know. Once when it matters.

I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don't dare stop.

Never do yourself, what you can con professionals into doing for you.

It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.

The real unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, without anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present - they are real.

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.