If the experiments which I urge be defective, it cannot be difficult to show the defects; but if valid, then by proving the theory, they must render all objections invalid.

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

The difference is too nice – Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

Although the big word on the left is ‚compassion,‘ the big agenda on the left is dependency.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

Women. They are a complete mystery.

It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.

Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out.

Atoms are very special: they like certain particular partners, certain particular directions, and so on. It is the job of physics to analyze why each one wants what it wants.

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

Now is the winter of our discontent.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as ‚failed states.‘

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

Dissents speak to a future age.

A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.

There’s no doubt that inequality destabilizes societies. I think the social science evidence on that front is crystal clear.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn’t take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.

My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted.

The economy’s always been the engine for our national security.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Over the objections, where they sound like squealing pigs, over the objections of Romney and all his allies, we passed some of the toughest Wall Street regulations in history, turning Wall Street back into the allocator of capital it always has been and no longer a casino. And they want to repeal it.

Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man’s struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

Is evolution a theory, a system, or an hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true.

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

I read the book of Job last night, I don’t think God comes out well in it.

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.

The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.

The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books.

If anyone offers conjectures about the truth of things from the mere possibility of hypotheses, I do not see by what stipulation anything certain can be determined in any science, since one or another set of hypotheses may always be devised which will appear to supply new difficulties.

Everyone knows nowadays that people ‚have complexes‘. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

Truth is weirder than any fiction I’ve seen.

A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

Creationists make it sound as though a ‚theory‘ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

Politically there were failures. And also on the personal level, there were tremendous failures.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Sure, women sportswriters look when they’re in the clubhouse. Read their stories. How else do you explain a capital letter in the middle of a word?

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.