The corrupt man is nearly always rootless, deeply aware of his rootlessness.

Corrupt men are always liars. Lies are their instruments, their pleasure, their solace. In time they come to believe their lies, or rather to half-believe them.

Fragmentation occurs when a civilization is in decline.

Uncorrupted man, with God's blessing, advances across the fields of the universe as though he were walking down a country lane.

The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.

The small Hitlers are around us every day.

All is forgiven to kings and popes. History grants them immunity, even a full pardon, even when they admit their crimes and glory in them.

It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.

Conquest, tyranny, treachery, and the clash of cultures bring about corrupt societies, and so does old age. Sometimes the five faces of corruption are visible at the same time.

The corrupt, when found out, become especially good moralists.

A totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.

One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.

Truth is always unfolding. It's not an absolute.

You tried to drink the East River,"Magnus said, and Alec saw, as if for the first time, that Magnus's clothes were soaking wet too, sticking to his body like a dark second skin.

I prefer to think of myself as a musician who is still learning and trying to do something every time out.

I did a play called Throne of Straw when I was 11, at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. It became really clear to me at that point that I enjoyed acting more than any other experience I was having.

Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it.

The mathematical phenomenon always develops out of simple arithmetic, so useful in everyday life, out of numbers, those weapons of the gods: the gods are there, behind the wall, at play with numbers.

Every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing. ... There does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any writing of mine dealing with this subject.

Clouds are like boogers hanging on the nostrils of the moon.

My dad played rugby, so I used to watch a lot of rugby union and rugby league.