Sometimes the best, and only effective, way to kill an idea is to put it into practice.

Take away grievances from some people and you remove their reasons for living; most of us are nourished by hope, but a considerable minority get psychic nutrition from their resentments, and would waste away purposelessly without them.

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

And most of the failures in parent-child relationships, from my observation, begin when the child begins to acquire a mind and a will of its own, to make independent decisions and to question the omnipotence or the wisdom of the parent.

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.

It may be true that the weak will always be driven to the wall; but it is the task of a just society to see that the wall is climbable.