Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.

The lessons of history teach us - if the lessons of history teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe---in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.

A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.

Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman's breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy.

Sin is cruelty and injustice, all else is peccadillo. Oh, a sense of sin comes from violating the customs of your tribe. But breaking custom is not sin even when it feels so; sin is wronging another person.