Genealogy: A perverse preoccupation of those who seek to demonstrate that their forebears were better people than they are.

Nuclear war is inevitable, says the pessimists; Nuclear war is impossible, says the optimists; Nuclear war is inevitable unless we make it impossible, says the realists.

Between the semi-educated, who offer simplistic answers to complex questions, and the overeducated, who offer complicated answers to simple questions, it is a wonder that any questions get satisfactorily answered at all.

By the time a man asks you for advice, he has generally made up his mind what he wants to do, and is looking for confirmation rather than counseling.

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.

The profound immoralities of our time are cruelty, indifference, injustice and the use of others as means rather than ends in themselves.

As long as there are human beings, there will be the idea of brotherhood -- and an almost total inability to practice it.