Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall.

Why do most Americans look up to education and down upon educated people?

It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case." --

Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

Somebody who never got over the embarrassing fact that he was born in bed with a lady.

The real heretic is not the atheist or agnostic (who are often decent people) but those who murmur "it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as it makes you feel good." This turns religion into a subjective matter, like taste in furnishings, and robs theology of its claim to ultimate truth.

The main discomfort in being a middle-of-the-roader is that you get sideswiped by partisans going in both directions.