Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.
In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
Nothing so weakens a government as inflation.
We have escapist fiction, so why not escapist biography?
Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.
Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.
It has been the acknowledged right of every Marxist scholar to read into Marx the particular meaning that he himself prefers and to treat all others with indignation.
Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.
Every corner of the public psyche is canvassed by some of the most talented citizens to see if the desire for some merchandisable product can be cultivated.
Partly, the Russian system succeeds because, in contrast to the Western industrial economies, it makes full use of its manpower.
Men have been swindled by other men on many occasions. The autumn of 1929 was, perhaps, the first occasion when men succeeded on a large scale in swindling themselves.
Man, at least when educated, is a pessimist. He believes it safer not to reflect on his achievements; Jove is known to strike such people down.
If there must be madness, something may be said for having it on a heroic scale.
One of my greatest pleasures in my writing has come from the thought that perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position. Then comes the realization that such people rarely read.
Originality is something that is easily exaggerated, especially by authors contemplating their own work.
Inventions that are not made, like babies that are not born, are not missed.
Some things were never meant to be recycled.
The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed.
If you’re rich you can buy books. If you’re poor, you need a library.
The spirit should never grow old.