People love to hear the brag of the local boy, because they want him to be great, but the foreigner must deny that he has any outstanding virtue – this is what will endear him to the locals.
If a pig goes upon the threshing-floor, or a field, or a garden, and the owner of the meadow, or the field, or the garden smites it so that it die, he shall give it back to its owner; but if he does not give it back, he becomes a thief.
It’s simple. Nothing exists except in relation to something else.
Science isn’t done by consensus. It’s done by rigorous testing.
Who would I be, if other good souls did not make up for my shortcomings?
Religion is tied to the deepest feelings people have. The love that arises from that stewing pot is the sweetest and strongest, but the hate is the hottest, and the anger is the most violent.
The great forces of history were real, after a fashion. But when you examined them closely, those great forces always came down to the dreams and hungers and judgments of individuals.
Rumors are the sauce of a dry life.
When you really know someone, you can’t hate him.
Apparently the Dutch now prided themselves on being better at queues than the English, which was absurd, because standing cheerfully in line was the English national sport.
Good people do not let others suffer needlessly.
A weak King must be what other Kings have been; a strong King is himself, and from then on the meaning of the name of King is changed.
Satanic Verses is a despicable book that could not have been written by a person who wished to behave decently and responsibly.
I don’t know why people who got what they need to be happy don’t just go ahead and be happy.
It just gripes me hollow, the way God always sneaks in to take the credit.
To expect wickedness from human beings is the best way I know of to avoid surprises. And when I am surprised, it’s always pleasantly.
Once you have the gallows, you’ll find new reasons to hang people from it.
That’s how it goes within a family. You think you know each other so well, and so you don’t bother hardly getting to know each other at all.
Some men are great enough that they can love a whole woman, and not just part of her.
The fear of death in the one place was not as strong as another kind of fear, the fear of a world gone crazy, a place where anything could happen, where nothing could be trusted, where nothing was certain. A terrible place.