We live in ugly times.

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

The more people smoke herb, the more Babylon fall.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

Back when I was in school, few people understood dyslexia and what to do for it. My teachers thought I was lazy and not very clever, and I got bored easily… thinking of all the things I could do once I left school. I couldn’t always follow what was going on.

What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

It’s a frustrating game because the situations so drastically change at different times over the course of the week, the game, the season. It feels like brain surgery at times.

To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

We’re a diverse society, and I think the TV is doing a great job in showing that we’re all human beings, that we can all get along, that we can all be together, and I think that’s a marvelous thing.

Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned.

Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

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.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.

The masculine spirit is under assault. It’s obvious.

I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

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.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

I think the word rich is all relative.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

The child inside of you knows how to take things as they come, how to deal most effectively and happily with everything and everyone it encounters on this planet. If you can recapture that childlike essence of your being, you can stay ‚forever young at heart.‘

I like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

‚Fahrenheit 451‘ postulates a lot of things I didn’t want to have happen.

I try to read as much as I can. I try to read an informative article every day. I try to stay read up on our world issues.

So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

I don’t want to get into it, but if you know someone, it doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say or they do.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.