Society is always engaged in a vast conspiracy to preserve itself - at the expense of the new demands of each new generation.

Evil is a fact, not to be explained away, but to be accepted; and accepted, not to be endured, but to be conquered.

No one is wise enough, no nation is important enough, no human interest is precious enough, to justify the wholesale destruction and murder which constitute the science of war.

If Christians were Christians, there would be no anti-Semitism. Jesus was a Jew. There is nothing that the ordinary Christian so dislikes to remember as this awkward historical fact.

Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians are to patriotism.

When I say 'God' it is poetry and not theology

The thought of immortality is as well founded as any other well authenticated postulate of the human reason.

The devil will try and do everything possible to stop, distract us from our purpose

Well, I was born to people raised in 1889.

Try this now. If you can't do it, you can do Headstand instead. If you don't want to do that, go home!

You can't fake creativity, competence, or sexual arousal.

I think soft power definitely can work. But, you know, it depends on who you're dealing with. Some people are so intent upon power and keeping power that it's very difficult to conduct soft power.

None of the great players has been so incomprehensible to the majority of amateurs and even masters, as Emanuel Lasker.

Ain't no reason for me to kill nobody in the ring, unless they deserve it.

I'm not much of a Method actress, so even though my character in The Ghost Writer was quite dark and bad-tempered, I could only do that if I was seeming quite perky.

When you're writing a screenplay every scene needs to change from positive to negative, or negative to positive, and constantly trying to change the values of the movie.

Just to keep bad dreams at bay, she took a swig out of a bottle that smelled of apples and happy brain-death.