Everything matters. The Universe is approximately fifteen billion years old, and I swear that in all that time, nothing has ever happened that has not mattered, has not contributed in some way to the totality.

There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die.

These matters require what I think of as the Shakespearean cast of thought. That is to say, a fine credulity about everything, kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything.... It keeps you constantly alert to every possibility.

If you attack Stupidity you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life.

On the whole, we treat the Devil shamefully, and the worse we treat Him the more He laughs at us.

It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp before they were five years old.

Never harbor grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else.