Smooth functioning of social life has always depended on the recognition of certain basic limits to behavior. We cannot simply say or do anything we wish, or offend people, without paying consequences – isolation, ostracism, etc.

The biggest crime in England is to rise above your station. It’s fine to be a pop star. ‚Oh, it’s great, lots of fun, aren’t they sweet, these pop stars! But to think you have anything to say about how the world should work? What arrogance!‘

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

Any time we are misused or used for a purpose other than what God intended us for, it’s damaging.

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.

The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar… Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.

It’s a tragedy, in a way, that Americans are brought up to think that they cannot feel for other people and other beings just because they are different. They think they’re different. It’s very limiting.

You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

I am alone; I am always alone no matter what.

I really don’t pay attention to the outside world when I’m incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of jail, because it’s all beyond my control.

An overflow of good converts to bad.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy’s will are not allowed that luxury.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.

There’s no difference between one’s killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It’s exactly the same thing, or even worse.

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

I don’t have many friends; I’m very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated, and I’ve never been really close to anyone.

Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions; it’s walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too.

My wife told me if there is any rumors about me, it better be about politics and not about my social life.

As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

No memory of having starred atones for later disregard, or keeps the end from being hard.

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

Sometimes if you jump into something too quickly, you can screw up something that might have been good two years down the road.

Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half.

I don’t think I could think of a single thing that’s more isolating than being famous.

If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn’t make your house look any better.

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.

Israel is following policies which maximise its security threats… policies which choose expansion over security… policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That’s not impossible.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

Regarding marriage, it – somehow, it didn’t happen. One fellow in such a big family not getting married is not an issue.

Say there’s a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter – for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that’s saying is that he’s living a fantasy life of rebellion.

There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married – who divorce in three seconds – don’t want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and of Hiroshima.

Regarded zoologically, man is today an almost isolated figure in nature. In his cradle, he was less isolated.

I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.

I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

You can say, ‚Well, isn’t it unfortunate that chaos is represented by the feminine‘ – well, it might be unfortunate, but it doesn’t matter, because that is how it’s represented. It’s been represented like that forever. And there are reasons for it. You can’t change it. It’s not possible. This is underneath everything.

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

The Oklahoma City bombing was simple technology, horribly used. The problem is not technology. The problem is the person or persons using it.

If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

In any decision for action, when you have to make up your mind what to do, there is always a ‚should‘ involved, and this cannot be worked out from, ‚If I do this, what will happen?‘ alone.

You can’t move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.