Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.

Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.

In America any boy may become President, and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.

The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small.

I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind.

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.

As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice.

I can't seem to recall if I've ever had amnesia before.

When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.

The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.

The US is headed for ruin and revolution. The revolution will almost certainly be put down, violently. But the ruin cannot be stopped.

What the elements are to chemistry, what the sounds are to music, are words to language.

My favorite water cooler topic is fantasy football. I used to make fun of friends for doing it and now I'm obsessed.

On matters of intonation and technicalities I am more than a martinet - I am a martinetissimo.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

The Great Arizona Desert is full of the bleaching bones of people who waited for me to start something.

No matter how reclusive we tend to be, we picture the after-life as a community of souls. It is one thing to seek privacy in this life; it is another to face eternity alone.