In the cycle of a great civilization, the artist begins as priest, and ends as a clown or buffoon.

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.

One of the many pleasures of old age is giving things up.

All new news is old news happening to new people

I beg you to believe that life is not a process, it's a drama

Sex is the mysticism of a materialistic society - in the beginning was the Flesh, and the Flesh became Word... [it has] its own mysteries - this is my birth [control] pill; swallow it in remembrance of me!

It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits - like becoming a millionaire or a prime minister, winning a war, seducing beautiful women, flying through the stratosphere, or landing on the moon. First-rate pursuits - involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding - inevitably result in a sense of failure. A Napoleon, a Churchill, or a Roosevelt can feel himself to be successful, but never a Socrates, a Pascal, or a Blake. Understanding is forever unattainable.