I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.

Thinking fragments reality – it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.

There is no gambling like politics.

History, a distillation of rumour.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Blood alone moves the wheels of history.

History should be written as philosophy.

The very phrase ‚foreign affairs‘ makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.

Pop is totally results-oriented and there is a very strong feedback loop.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

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.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.

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 usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

There is no just and serene criticism as yet.

I’m not a reality-TV kind of guy. But it’s almost like we’re living in a reality show. Every day in this country, everybody keeps worrying about the deterioration of America, and it’s like a big reality show.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.

If you judge, investigate.

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

Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.

I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect – in terror.

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.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

It is a strange trade that of advocacy. Your intellect, your highest heavenly gift is hung up in the shop window like a loaded pistol for sale.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

I’m not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose… it’ll be much harder to detect.

In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.

Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

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

Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.

I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin, but when she was making fun of this ‚hopey changey stuff,‘ she was right: there was nothing there.

We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

‚I am‘ is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that ‚I do‘ is the longest sentence?

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

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

But if you – if what – the reports are true, what they’re saying is, is that as a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that’s going to increase our costs, we knew that.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

All art is quite useless.

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

As a Western, ‚The Magnificent Seven‘ was a pretty good film. I don’t think it was as interesting or as multi-faceted as ‚Seven Samurai.‘

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

I’m not a macroeconomics person.

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

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

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.