"A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy."

"It is a timeless truth that a dream nurtured by daily toil will inevitably outshine a wish born of idle hope — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"To love truly means recognizing that the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you."

"I just finished my homework fast, I was bored to death. There wasn't 500 channels so there was a thing for a librarian to teach a kid like me about reading. I started reading early and I read all the time, because I love it."

"To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea."

"The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting."

"I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans."