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.

I think the materialist conception of history is valid.

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

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

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.

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

There are two bowlers who I think are very tough to play against – Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

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

I’m crepuscular.

I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.

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

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

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

Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry.

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

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.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

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.

History, a distillation of rumour.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

The economy’s always been the engine for our national security.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

I didn’t do anything at the Queen, whom I admire.

Juvenile crime is not naturally born in the boy, but is largely due either to the spirit of adventure that is in him, to his own stupidity, or to his lack of discipline, according to the nature of the individual.

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

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy.

Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That’s the way the mind of man operates.

Extremely religious, legalistic people have a criticism or judgment about everyone and everything. They just have a way of bringing people down with what they say.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.

The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

If you judge, investigate.

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

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.

Dogs never bite me – just humans.

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

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

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

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

I’m quite a chauvinistic person.

The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.

I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.

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.

For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier… I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.

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

I’m not the kind of cat that’s going to cut off an ear if I can’t do something.

People who think too much before they act don’t act too much.

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.