137 quotes
Intellectuals never sound more foolish than when posing as the last civilised man.
Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere (2000)
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.
A good liar must have a good memory. Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.
Emancipate yourself from the idea of a celestial dictatorship and you've taken the first step to becoming free.
The reading public isn't born that doesn't think foreigners are either funny or faintly sinister.
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports (1993)
But it can be almost as objectionable to be made to take part in something as to be forbidden to do so.
And Yet...: Essays (2015)
Perhaps the values of socialists can only be realized by socialists in a nonsocialist society.
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports (1993)
Only the force of American arms, or the extremely credible threat of that force, can bring a fresh face to power.
One test of un homme sérieux is that it is possible to learn from him even when one radically disagrees with him.
And Yet...: Essays (2015)
If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does.
Mortality (2012)
That most risky and volatile of all things—a self-pitying majority.
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports (1993)
He could see events being mutated into propaganda before his very eyes, even in the information headquarters of an ostensible democracy.
And Yet...: Essays (2015)
I once heard Susan Sontag, in conversation with Umberto Eco, define the polymath as one “who is interested in everything, and in nothing else.”
And Yet...: Essays (2015)
Yet despite his Edwardian and near-Victorian provenance he remains more contemporary and relevant to us than many authors of a much later date.
And Yet...: Essays (2015)
The taming and domestication of religion is one of the unceasing chores of civilization.
To the dumb question "Why me?" the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?
It is surprising how petty some of the “supernatural” miracles now seem.
Hindu child brides in India are flogged, and sometimes burned alive, if the pathetic dowry they bring is judged to be too small.
Inanity is pretending that Afghanistan will go away if we leave.
As well as being a vulgar producer of her own spectacle, and an embarrassment to her family, Cindy Sheehan is at best a shifty fantasist.