There’s no doubt that inequality destabilizes societies. I think the social science evidence on that front is crystal clear.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

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

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

There is no just and serene criticism as yet.

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

Politics… have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

In the last analysis, even the best man is evil: in the last analysis, even the best woman is bad.

The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

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

I’ve been blessed with talents to play this game and been put on a stage to impact a lot of people. I don’t want to take that for granted.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

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.

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.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

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

Atoms are very special: they like certain particular partners, certain particular directions, and so on. It is the job of physics to analyze why each one wants what it wants.

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 it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

I find capitalism repugnant. It is filthy, it is gross, it is alienating… because it causes war, hypocrisy and competition.

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

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

The answer to the problem of inequality is for the people who are fortunate enough to either have been gifted or deserved more to do everything they can to make the communities around them as strong as they possibly can.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

I’m very active on social media and see the huge impact it has on engaging with fans and being able to have a voice.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.

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

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.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

Well, we can’t say any more than we can say there is no god, there is no afterlife. We can only say there is no persuasive evidence for or argument for it.

There is no gambling like politics.

As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.

A witty saying proves nothing.

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.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

Women. They are a complete mystery.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

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

World War II broke out in 1939, and many people credit that war with saving the economy.

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.

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

Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

History is more or less bunk.

As capitalism falters, the rich move their money out of the country, violence increases, and politicians promising prosperity are elected.

The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water. There are too many inconsistencies.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

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