Averageness is a quality we must put up with. Men march toward civilization in column formation, and by the time the van has learned to admire the masters the rear is drawing reluctantly away from the totem pole.

The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as the mere instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as something more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes and chemical reactions. For, unless man is something more than that, he has no rights that anyone is bound to respect, and there are no limitations upon his conduct which he is bound to obey.

Walter Lippmann

To a visitor who asked to become his disciple the Master said, You may live with me, but don't become my follower. Whom, then, shall I follow? No one. The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.

Anthony de Mello

My own experience is that a certain kind of genius among students is best brought out in bed.

Allen Ginsberg

We owe to memory not only the increase of our knowledge, and our progress in rational inquiries, but many other intellectual pleasures

Samuel Johnson

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

E. M. Cioran

The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by taking my books away from me. It's perfectly awful to let the mind grind itself away between the upper and nether millstones of regret and remorse without respite; with books my life would be livable -- any life.

Oscar Wilde

I'm fascinated with all kinds of religion, but I'm not committed to any specific one.

Sheryl Lee

I love to promote our sport. I love grass-roots tennis. I love coaching. I love all parts of the sport. I love the business side.

Billie Jean King

I think they should have a Barbie with a buzz cut.

Ellen DeGeneres

Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central powerhouses. The conflict is no longer between the men, but between the motors that drive the men, and the men tend to succumb to their own motive forces.

Henry Adams, The Education of He

Actually, I loved Chucky. It's one of the strangest movies I've ever seen.

Bill Condon

We need affordable space travel to inspire our youth, to let them know that they can experience their dreams, can set significant goals and be in a position to lead all of us to future progress in exploration, discovery and fun. Thanks to the X Prize for the inspiration.

Burt Rutan