A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.

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

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

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.

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

The U.S. is off the spectrum in religious commitment.

Love in all its subtleties is nothing more, and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace marked on the heart of the element by the psychical convergence of the universe upon itself.

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

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

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

Biography lends to death a new terror.

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

This is not writing at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

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.

If you look at ‚Blade Runner,‘ it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday, and there are all kinds of different versions of it.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

All art is quite useless.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

Politics… have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

There’s a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

I’ve analyzed the best I can… and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

That the divided but contiguous particles of bodies may be separated from one another is a matter of observation; and, in the particles that remain undivided, our minds are able to distinguish yet lesser parts, as is mathematically demonstrated.

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.

Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit.

It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.

History is more or less bunk.

All genuinely intellectual work is humorous.

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

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

War is so complex; human nature is so complex. There’s no filmmaker who has ever figured it out perfectly.

Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

The Army will take its lessons learned. They’re excellent at looking into themselves and reflecting on what did we do right, what did we do wrong.

Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.

When I was researching my book ‚The 33 Strategies of War‘, I studied Napoleon extensively and I found myself wanting to ask Napoleon questions about things he did, and if was I interpreting his actions correctly.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

I’m not a macroeconomics person.

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

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

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

When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.

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

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

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

You know, crankiness is at the essence of all comedy.