We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them.

Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.

The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in.

Most bad books get that way because their authors are engaged in trying to justify themselves. If a vain author is an alcoholic, then the most sympathetically portrayed character in his book will be an alcoholic. This sort of thing is very boring for outsiders.

To state a lie firmly, categorically and with great authority, undeterred by the fact that all concerned know it to be a lie, is one of the principal activities defined by the term practising law.

Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.

Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.