The high IQ has become the American equivalent of the Legion of Honor, positive proof of a child's intellectual aristocracy.... It has become more important to be a smart kid than a good kid or even a healthy kid.

Democracy means doing whatever you want without asking permission of anybody but your boss, your doctor, your lawyer, your landlord, your bank, your city, your state and federal authorities, and your wife and children.

Courage is walking naked through a cannibal village

Life begins at forty, but so does arthritis, and the habit of telling the same story three times to the same person.

Any kid who has two parents who are interested in him and has a houseful of books isn't poor.

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.

Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.