“In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.”

“If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers.”

“If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow.”

“Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.”

“Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.”

“Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances.”

“Should we not be concerned as to whether this fear of error is not just the error itself?”

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it. 1924-1926)”

“The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.”

“Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift.”

“Now I sense the perfume of flowers like seeing a new thing.I know they smell just as well as I know I existed.Theyre things known from the outside.But now I know with my breathing from the back of ...”

“Existence is a priceless gift and the beauties of nature are the priceless gifts of the existence!”

“No work is so important you have to do it.”

“We have every piece of data on 200 million people, he said, ticking off his fingers. We have their bank accounts. We know how much they make and how much they spend and where. We have their social ...”

“The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”