1. “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.”
2. “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.”
3. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
4. “Almighty ruler of the all
Whose power extends to great and small,
Who guides the stars with steadfast law,
Whose least creation fills with awe -
Oh grant Thy mercy and Thy grace
To those who venture into space.”
5. “Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.”
6. “A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it -- it keeps him upright.”
7. “Anyone can see a forest fire. Skill lies in sniffing the first smoke.”
8. “Avoid making irrevocable decisions when tired or hungry.”
9. “Beauty is not diminished by being shared.”
10. “Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.”
11. “Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.”
12. "Belief gets in the way of learning."
13. ”Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.”
14. “...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value.”
15. “Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”
16. “Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events.”
17. "Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. Another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible result. Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics."
18. “I don't see how an article of clothing can be indecent. A person, yes.”
19. “If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.”
20. “If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.”
21. “If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!”
22. "I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain."
23. “In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is never to let them find out.”
24. “It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.”
25. “It's amazing how much mature wisdom resembles being too tired.”
26. “Little girls and butterflies need no excuse.”
27. “Logic is a feeble reed, friend. "Logic" proved that airplanes can't fly and that H-bombs won't work and that stones don't fall out of the sky. Logic is a way of saying that anything that didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.”
28. “Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
29. “Man can be chained, but he cannot be domesticated.”
30. “May you live as long as you love and love as long as you live.”
31. “Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.”
32. “Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion- in the long run, these are the only people who count.”
33. “Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow if tomorrow might improve the odds.”
34. “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
35. “No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law.”
36. "No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers."
37. “Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.”
38. “Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surely curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
39. “Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.”
40. “Self awareness is NOT just a bunch of amino acids bumping together.”
41. “Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.”
42. “Sex without love is merely healthy exercise”
43. “Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.”
44. “Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”
45. “The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship.”
46. “The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.”
47. “The hardest part of gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche.”
48. “The phrase "we (I) (you) simply must..." designates something that need not be done. "That goes without saying," is a red warning. "Of course..." means you had best check it yourself. And if "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.”
49. “There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.”
50. "There ought not to be anything in the whole universe that man can't poke his nose into."
51. “The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive.”
52. “The three-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.”
53. “The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.”
54. “To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy -- and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.”
55. "To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer."
56. “To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.”
57. “Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.”
58. “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate - and quickly.”
