I don't believe any of you have ever read Paradise Lost, and you don't want to. That's something that you just want to take on trust. It's a classic ... something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

It is a time when one's spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death.

It is no harm to be an ass, if one is content to bray and not kick.

One frequently only finds out how really beautiful a really beautiful woman is after considerable acquaintance with her; and the rule applies to Niagara Falls, to majestic mountains, and to mosques-especially to mosques.

Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?

The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the life too closely examined may not be lived at all.

A discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.