People don't realize how much they are in the grip of ideas. We live among ideas much more than we live in nature.

Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches.

Live or die but don't poison everything.

... an era of turmoil and ideological confusion, the principal phenomenon of the present age.

A man may say, "From now on I'm going to speak the truth." But the truth hears him and runs away and hides before he's even done speaking.

I love solitude, but I prize it most when plenty of company is available.

People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.