“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage – the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological (sic) traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors. A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race – and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.”

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union.”

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.”

“A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.”

“It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.”

“It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope.”

“Let a smile be your umbrella.”

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.”

“A lack of confidence made me work harder.”

“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a poor memory.”

“Hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing.”

“A painter is lost when he finds himself.”

“All ideas grow out of other ideas.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is as just as good as your knowledge.”