The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. - H. L. Mencken

I yield so easily, not because I am not intensely interested, but because I long since came to the conclusion that it is wholly impossible for one human being to understand another’s point of view. Each of us is eternally isolated.

If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x × y is less than y.

For all his compassion for family and close friends he lacked a larger compassion, one that embraced people whom he did not know or care for personally.