“Times change, and people change with the times—the wise ones do. Wisdom lies in knowing when to remember and when to forget. Consistency is not a habit of mind which it is wise to practice or to expect of the human race.”

“Free scientific inquiry? The first adjective is redundant.”

Intelligence? It is such a rare, precarious spark that flashes for a moment somewhere among men, and vanishes. One cannot tell its nature, or its future . . . or its death. . . .”

“That’s what’s strange about him. I know that he’s a liar, a loafer, a cheap playboy, the most viciously irresponsible waste of a human being I ever imagined possible. Yet, when I look at him, I feel that if ever there was a man to whom I would entrust my life, he’s the one.”

He was no worse than anybody, only smarter. Some get caught at it and some don’t—that’s the only difference. . . .

He liked to observe emotions; they were like red lanterns strung along the dark unknown of another’s personality, marking vulnerable points.

You keep pushing out of your mind the thoughts which you believe to be evil. They do it, because they want to avoid effort.

“I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.