Debt is part of the human condition. Civilization is based on exchanges – on gifts, trades, loans – and the revenges and insults that come when they are not paid back.

I gave ‚em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.

Let my enemies devour each other.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.

We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

The capitalist system is about taking from the Earth and from the other great commodity, labour. What’s happening with this system is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the only way out of it is supposed to be growth. But growth is debt. It’s going to make the situation worse.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

We get paid for bringing value to the market place.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It’s a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can’t get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt, it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

Think of our physical sustenance. It is truly heaven-sent. The necessities of air, food, and water all come to us as gifts from a loving Heavenly Father.

We’ve gotta become the Martians. I’m a Martian – I tell you to become Martians. And we’ve gotta go to Mars and civilize Mars and build a whole civilization on Mars and then move out, 300 years from now into the universe. And when we do that, we have a chance of living forever.

Bad debt is debt that makes you poorer. I count the mortgage on my home as bad debt, because I’m the one paying on it. Other forms of bad debt are car payments, credit card balances, or other consumer loans.

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

At my lowest point, I was nearly $700,000 in debt.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you – until you get your revenge.

I used to have insecurity about my finances, then I announced that I had debt, and now I don’t have any insecurities.

The problem is that the U.S. government is the biggest debtor in the world, and those depending on it to take care of them will only become poorer.

A man in debt is so far a slave.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

I declared bankruptcy, and that was the worst thing I ever should have done.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

I performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.

Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

I think it quite likely that we are the only civilization within several hundred light years; otherwise we would have heard radio waves.

You can’t buy love, but you can pay heavily for it.

Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.

The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It’s a battle you can’t hope to win – it’s a battle that’s going to go on forever. It’s part of the human condition.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

And if you’re horrible to me I’m going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That’s how I operate.

Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

I don’t talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.

Unlike Europe, China can’t be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United States looks at it the wrong way. But China, they’ve been there for 3,000 years and are paying no attention to the barbarians and don’t see any need to.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards barbarism.

Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.

God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it – not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.

My doctor told me I shouldn’t work out until I’m in better shape. I told him, ‚All right; don’t send me a bill until I pay you.‘

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren’t so exciting.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

I ordered each man to be presented with something, as strings of ten or a dozen glass beads apiece, and thongs of leather, all which they estimated highly; those which came on board I directed should be fed with molasses.

At Christmas, I am always struck by how the spirit of togetherness lies also at the heart of the Christmas story. A young mother and a dutiful father with their baby were joined by poor shepherds and visitors from afar. They came with their gifts to worship the Christ child.

In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.