Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.
I’m not really on a mission to tell anybody anything. I’d rather be figured out.
Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.
Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless.
Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.
I don’t speak particularly well. That’s one of the consequences of being extremely ugly.
Truth exists in art.
Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.
Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.
Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.
Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?
You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
I don’t like needing anyone for anything.
Five minutes of today are worth as much to me, as five minutes in the next millennium. Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today.
Politics is human beings; it’s addition rather than subtraction.
What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?
Within the reigning social order, the general public must remain an object of manipulation, not a participant in thought, debate, and decision.
More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
There’s no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor.
