That if you need something urgently done, give the task to the busiest (or second busiest) person in the office.

Ne dozvolite detetu normalnu muziku niti književnost. Biće mu muka od onoga što ga okružuje. Ja već posle Servantesa nisam mogao, bez suza, da gledam ovo đubre oko nas. Dajte mu nešto lagano, optimistično, kako bi dete moglo da postane javni tužilac ili potpredsednica Vlade.

Iluzija je da rat počinje i završava se nekim datumom. Upravo suprotno, posledice rata komplikuju stvarnost u mnogo čemu, dugo nakon što pucnji utihnu. Potrebni su izuzetna volja, rešenost, plan i program nekoliko generacija ne bi li rat i konačno bio okončan. To je moja misao po tom pitanju. Lik Hinkemana, povratnika iz Prvog svetskog rata, u tom pogledu je jedna Tolerova metafora kojom uator opisuje, uslovno rečeno, atrofirano telo celokupne nacije. Ono što je bio moj motiv i razlog rada na "Hinkemanu" jeste uverenje da živim upravo u takvom okruženju, društvu i zemlji. Zemlji čija je društvena patologija posledica delovanja rata ili ratova, za koje nikad nije bilo snage da se jednom zauvek završe.

As harmony makes small things grow, discord brings the greatest to ruin.

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.

You would have to have no love whatever for your country, you would have to be hostile to it, to shoot the pride of the nation - its concentrated knowledge, energy and talent! And wasn't it exactly the same...in the case of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov?

Language is largely made to show-off, gossip, confuse people, delude them, charm them, seduce them, scare them, and exploit them. And, as a side effect, convey information. Just a side effect, you fools.

Johnny von Neumann enjoyed thinking. I have come to suspect that to most people, thinking is painful.

Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest thing from it.

More often than not, the person is the problem, not the incentive system. No incentive system turns mediocre into extraordinary.

Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear what we want them to know about us. One of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think about nike …. In their ads they don’t ever talk about the product. ... What does Nike do in their advertisements? They honour great athletes. That’s who they are. That’s what they are about. Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it we stand for. Where do we sit in this world. What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done …

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn't swim.

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. - A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

The task is, not so much to see what no one has seen yet; but to think what nobody has thought yet, about that which everybody sees.

Patients derive a certain satisfaction from their sufferings.

It seems to me, that if we love, we grieve. That's the deal. That's the pact. Grief and love are forever intertwined. Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and, like love, grief is non-negotiable.

When you treat people like idiots, they’ll behave like idiots.

You absolutely need habits to function. You cannot solve every problem in life as if it is the first time it’s thrown at you.

The best way to learn is rewriting.