The truly tragic kind of suffering is the kind produced and defiantly insisted upon by the hero himself so that, instead of making him better, it makes him worse and when he dies he is not reconciled to the law but defiant, that is, damned. Lear is not a tragic hero, Othello is.

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.

Dogmatic theological statements are neither logical propositions nor poetic utterances. They are ''shaggy dog'' stories; they have a point, but he who tries too hard to get it will miss it.

Of course, Behaviourism 'works'. So does torture. Give me a no-nonsense, down-to-earth behaviourist, a few drugs, and simple electrical appliances, and in six months I will have him reciting the Athanasian Creed in public.

The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.

Though one cannot always Remember exactly why one has been happy, There is no forgetting that one was.

I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen.