Even in my bravest moment, I am a coward.
A book is not an end in itself; it is only a way to touch someone - a bridge extended across a space of loneliness and obscurity - and sometimes it is a way of winning other people to our causes.
You spend the first part of your life collecting things. . . and the second half getting rid of them.
Those who seek the truth run the risk of finding it.
Every person is born with a talent, and happiness depends on discovering that talent in time.
What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse.
Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape. . . . For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.
You may wonder why a question of manners has got me so exercised. It's because I believe in a simple rule. If you see a person you know behave unreasonably to someone else, you can bet your last pound that before long he'll be behaving like that to you.
Nothing I study makes me think we will survive this century. And yet why am I so happy? Because it's not too late. Just get off your ass and work for revolution.
She didn't even have to smile, and she rarely did outside her house--it was the eyes, her dancer's carriage, the way she seemed to deliberate over the smallest movement of her body.
People have a crab mentality, man. They're walking sideways.