We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

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

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

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

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?

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

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.

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

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

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.

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.

Criticism is prejudice made plausible.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

I have not written in vain if I have heretofore done anything towards diminishing the reputation of the Renaissance landscape painting.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

I do not believe any of the statistical claims that are made about public opinion. I don’t see why anybody does.

This is not writing at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.

I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.

All genuinely intellectual work is humorous.

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

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

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

It’s not simply to say, ‚My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way,‘ but the greatest dissents do become court opinions.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

Religion is just mind control.

I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.

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

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.

If you’re in business or politics, you need to have an intense understanding of what’s going on around you.

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

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

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

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

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

I’m a problem-solver.

I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books.

The racing is quite boring, sometimes. It’s hard to see how it pulls in fans.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

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

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

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

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

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

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

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.