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.

Consistency is a virtue for trains.

The war against Vietnam is only the ghastliest manifestation of what I'd call imperial provincialism, which afflicts America's whole culture-aware only of its own history, insensible to everything which isn't part of the local atmosphere.

You tell me your favorite novelists and I'll tell you whom you vote for, or whether you vote at all.

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

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

Powerful men in particular suffer from the delusion that human beings have no memories. I would go so far as to say that the distinguishing trait of powerful men is the psychotic certainty that people forget acts of infamy as easily as their parents birth