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.

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.

To be great is to assume great concerns.

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

Great writers are not those who tell us we shouldn’t play with fire, but those who make our fingers burn.

As a rule, the most dangerous ideas are not the ones that divide people but those on which they agree.