I believe that inside every tool is a hammer.
Reason tends to check selfish impulses and to grant the satisfaction of legitimate impulses in others.
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.
It's always wise to seek the truth in our opponents' error, and the error in our own truth.
The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control. Since it is impossible to count on enough moral goodwill among those who possess irresponsible power to sacrifice it for the good of the whole, it must be destroyed by coercive methods and these will always run the peril of introducing new forms of injustice in place of those abolished.
There was a time when I had all the answers. My real growth began when I discovered that the questions to which I had the answers were not the important questions.
The Number our envious Persons, confirmation our capability.
Upon the great questions of origin, of destiny, of immortality, of. . . other worlds, every honest man must say, 'I do not know. ' Upon these questions, this is the creed of intelligence.
Calvin [Trillin] was much more of a mover and a shaker. That's all I'm saying. I was a "weenie. " That was another term back then.
No one is ever quite as strong or as weak as you'd think.