In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, licking the earth.

In the end, coming to faith remains for all a sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life, of responding to a bell that had long been ringing, of taking a place at a table that had long been vacant.

I think that President [Dwight] Eisenhower was... did the most marvelous job in the war, not really a military job: a public relations job, and it was essential that there should be a public relations job done in the post that he had.

An orgy looks particularly alluring seen through the mists of righteous indignation.

I'm much too modest a person.

I think that the essence of a free and civilized society is that everything in it should be subject to criticism, that all forms of authority, should be treated with a certain reservation.

The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.