A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

A person who has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?

Those few people who do respond to the dire conditions of the future - journalists, environmentalists, behavioral scientists - tend not to be powerful.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.

I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.