"He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building."

"Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it."

"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

"Is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer, it may be possible to make them believe by force."

"...people are by nature fickle, and it is easy to persuade them of something, but difficult to keep them persuaded."

"I don't kill flies but I like to mess with their minds. I hold them above globes. They freak out and yell, 'Whoa, I'm way too high!'"

"Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution."

"Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor - but they have few followers now."

"Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed."

"The Baptists' basic theology is that if you hold someone under water long enough, he'll come around to your way of thinking. It's a ritual known as 'Bobbing for Baptists.'"

"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse."