Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

But your questions, which are unanswerable without exception, all spring from the same erroneous thinking.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

I think that society has to be careful not to shift all of its resources to the elderly versus the young.

One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.

I wake up in the morning and my mind starts making sentences, and I have to get rid of them fast – talk them or write them down.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

Hatred is settled anger.

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

I’m interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society. We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it’s quite a satisfying thing to do, isn’t it?

I started out in anthropology, so to me how society works, how people put themselves together and make things work, has always been a big interest.

We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

I don’t know how to function without music. When I’m not making it, I’m listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

I’m going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I’m able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.

Since I was 16, I’ve felt a black cloud hangs over me. Since then, I have taken pills for depression.

I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right, even when you’re not sure it is.

That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.

Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

No, I’m not anguished and tormented.

War is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.

Demographics show that we are entering a battle between young and old. I call it the ‚Age War.‘ The young want to hang onto their money to grow their families, businesses, and wealth. The old want the tax and investment dollars of the young to sustain their old age.

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.

I say there’re no depressed words just depressed minds.

I just think it’s so important not to take yourself too seriously.

My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication – it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness – it is all that I have – and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did – or did not do – to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest – but suffer from a constant strain.

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.

The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain.

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

When people are very damaged, they can often meet the world with a kind of defiance.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.

It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac.