People don't really change. Not fundamentally. When they surprise us, it is because we failed to recognize their potentialities.

a fair degree of literacy of speech ... is increasingly rare in politicians and not necessarily regarded as an asset.

The strength of weak people constantly appalls me. Have you ever seen a vine kill an oak tree? Deadly.

The only love from which a man never recuperates is the one he never had. The eternal and untarnished illusion.

It's easy to respond to the hate cries, usually carefully wrapped up in a flag. Perhaps hate is the greatest simplifier of them all. It's the man with the throb in his voice, the man with the easy formula, the man who tries to shout to my emotions instead of speaking to my mind, the man who is sure he is right that I run from like hell.

There's no disillusionment like learning that forbidden fruit can be unpleasant.

The doctor will persist in laboring under the delusion that patients want common sense instead of magic.