Every civilization must contend with an unconscious force which can block, betray, or countermand almost any conscious intention of the collectivity.
Producing perfection from imperfection is, after all, the highest of art forms.
People don’t vote. Instinct tells them it’s useless.
Journalism is the entertainment business.
Blood is thicker than water, but politics are thicker than blood.
Paired opposites define your longings and those longings imprison you.
Unused power was like a marionette with visible strings, nobody holding them. A compelling attraction: I could make it dance.
Death makes a prophet’s voice louder.
The oppressed always learned from and copied the oppressor. When the tables were turned, the stage was set for another round of revenge and violence – roles reversed. And reversed and reversed ad nauseam.
To stay awake all night adds a day to your life.
The most persistent principles in the universe are accident and error.
We are questioning more than the philosophy behind our dependence upon limited and limiting systems. We question the power structures that have grown up around such systems.
Technology is both a tool for helping humans and for destroying them. This is the paradox of our times which we’re compelled to face.
What I’m saying in my books boils down to this: Mine religion for what is good and avoid what is deleterious. Don’t condemn people who need it. Be very careful when that need becomes fanatical.
Many things we do naturally become difficult only when we try to make them intellectual subjects. It is possible to know so much about a subject that you become totally ignorant.
When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training.
Words are such gross machinery, so primitive and ambiguous.
The act of saying that things exist that cannot be described in words shakes a universe where words are the supreme belief.
Words can carry any burden we wish. All that’s required is agreement and a tradition upon which to build.
Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention.