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.

What we achieved was a nuclear pause, not a nuclear halt.

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.

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

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

I think a lot of things that are the norm, that are very systematic, don’t work.

It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

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.

All genuinely intellectual work is humorous.

In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, it now seems clear that the shock of the attacks was exploited in America.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

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.

Premature certainty is the enemy of the truth.

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

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

Religion is just mind control.

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

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.

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

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

I don’t easily fall for lies, I can see through things.

Information is not knowledge.

Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing.

At ev’ry word a reputation dies.

Romcoms are hard in a lot of ways: they’re built to be buoyant. It’s easy to demean them.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.

Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.

How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

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.

Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.

I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general public.

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

I’m not a macroeconomics person.

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.

A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.

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.

Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

I can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

When I was researching my book ‚The 33 Strategies of War‘, I studied Napoleon extensively and I found myself wanting to ask Napoleon questions about things he did, and if was I interpreting his actions correctly.

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.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

It has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.

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

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

‚Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.