A doctrine of class war seemed to provide a solution to the problem of poverty to people who know nothing about how wealth is created

There is no pure free-market economy.

A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.

I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.

Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters.

I conclude that it is a fundamental mistake to think that salvation, justice, or virtue come through merely human institutions.

Democrats can't get elected unless things get worse-and things won't get worse unless they get elected.

Truth, which is important to a scholar, has to be concrete. And there is nothing more concrete than dealing with babies, burps and bottles, frogs and mud.

History is a better guide than good intentions.

What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving.

Power ... is not an end in itself, but is an instrument that must be used toward an end.

Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action.(There is no reality except in action.)

No one species shall make the life of the world its own.' … That's one expression of the law. Here's another: 'The world was not made for any one species.

People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly.

What if all I ever wanted out of everything I have been chasing was not the thing itself but to be happy, to feel good?Heidi C.

.....You see, Blake, the thing is, I don’t give a sh*t what other people think.

I don't need you to slay my dragons. I can perfectly do it on my own.

I don't care about movies. I tend to play badminton once a week.

My book has a pre - civil rights setting with a post - civil rights sensibility. I believe less and less that there is something called "The Black Experience," though undoubtedly there was one once.

I had a drug problem. I'd go to parties, take a leak, and there was cocaine right there. I was 25 when it started, rich, famous, and retired.

Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness.