Many people today don't want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing, They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety.

Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week.

One must never judge the writer by the man; but one may fairly judge the man by the writer.

The essence of the expert is that his field shall be very special and narrow: one of the ways in which he inspires confidence is to rigidly limit himself to the little toe; he would scarcely venture an off-the-record opinion on an infected little finger.

Someone who gossips well has a reputation for being good company or even a wit, never for being a gossip.

One of the saddest things about conformity is the ghastly sort of non-conformity it breeds; the noisy protesting, the aggressive rebelliousness, the rigid counter-fetishism.

With intellectuals, moral thought is often less a tonic that quickens ethical action than a narcotic that deadens it.