The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

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

I don’t care how many beauty treatments you have, I don’t care which bag you’re carrying – you have to have a dress.

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady’s head-dress.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.

How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.

Clothes if they are not well cut, you can kill nobody. A building poorly built can kill people. It’s a much more difficult work. I would not compare myself with that.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much.

We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

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.

I like Tom Ford a lot because it’s so classic and has great quality. I wear a lot of Rag & Bone.

I never leaf through a copy of National Geographic without realizing how lucky we are to live in a society where it is traditional to wear clothes.

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

I cap myself when I shop; I don’t like to spend extravagant amounts on clothes. But, I do get lent clothes for events, it’s scary to wear something so expensive, but I feel really pampered.

My performance outfits are very Marie Antoinette, sparkly corsets… and full skirts. And then we do another look that’s ’50s-inspired. Poufy skirts, big bows. Very fun, girlie and young, but otherwise, when I’m not in costume, I dress really normal.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

A lot of the reason my look is the way it is, is because it’s really easy to put on a sundress every night if I have to perform – or just wear jeans every day and a flannel or something.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.

There was a moment when designers draped in ermine would be reading Proust, or pretending to.

A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Coffee is a language in itself.

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.

As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.

I’m afraid that reason will triumph and that the world will become a place where anyone who doesn’t fit that will become unnecessary.

All government, of course, is against liberty.

Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.

People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite.