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

You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.

Knowledge fills a large brain; it merely inflates a small one.

Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure and far from the goal.

Life is, if anything, the art of combination. Of discrimination. Of freely picking one's own personal pattern out of a hundred choices. Not letting it be picked for you—either by the Establishment, or by the Rebels. Conformity of Hip is no better than Conformity of Square.

American parents, on the whole, do not want their sons to be artisans or craftsmen, but business or professional people. As a result, millions of youngsters are being prepared for careers they have little aptitude for - and little interest in except for dubious prestige.

When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us.