Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

Films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.

The first method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.