All politicians, even the most idealistic ones, are looking for money, sucking up to rich people.

I said I didn't think it would be a collectivist state so much as a wilderness in which most people lived hand to mouth, and the rich would live like princes - better than the rich had ever lived, except that their lives would constantly be in danger from the hungry predatory poor. All the technology would serve the rich, but they would need it for their own protection and to assure their continued prosperity.

... the grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.

And that is all anyone can do, try to be honest about what he feels, what he's seen or thinks he's seen.

Reading alters the appearance of a book. Once it has been read, it never looks the same again, and people leave their individual imprint on a book they have read. Once of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.

Someone who seems doddery is perhaps not doddery at all but only an older person absorbed in squinting concentration, as though on an ultimate trip, memorizing a scene, grateful for being alive to see it.

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.