We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure.

The truest test of independent judgment is being able to dislike someone who admires us, and to admire someone who dislikes us.

There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen.

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love -- takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

The difference between faith and superstition is that the first uses reason to go as far as it can, and then makes the jump; the second shuns reason entirely — which is why superstition is not the ally, but the enemy, of true religion.

We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion.