To yearn for a single, and usually simple, explanation of the chaotic materials of the past, to search for a single thread in that most tangled of all skeins, is a sign of immaturity.

Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.

A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas.

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.

The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted.

Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

History is organized memory, and the organization is all important!

Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change.

If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.

The Americans who framed our Constitution felt that without freedom of religion no other freedom counted.

History is a jangle of accidents, blunders, surprises and absurdities, and so is our knowledge of it, but if we are to report it at all we must impose some order upon it.

Boys, be ambitious. Be ambitious not for money, not for selfish aggrandizement, not for the evanescent thing which men call fame. Be ambitious for the attainment of all that a man can be.

I know a lot of Eastern Europeans, and because of what they have been through and what they have seen, they have an attitude where they are not easily fooled.

I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.

The destination of life is this eternal moment.

I would say that all short stories have mystery naturally built into them.

Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.

If one harbours anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, although in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible.

We look at each other for a moment and for once I feel awkward. It's not that I'm not into humility; I've just never had to practise it.

Why do they sterilize needles for lethal injections?

If you ever start to feel good about yourself... .... they have this thing called the internet.