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.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards barbarism.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

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

I think really, China, Chinese, I think they really have a long history of civilization, rich culture.

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

Let my enemies devour each other.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

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

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

If you can’t beat them, arrange to have them beaten.

An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

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.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.

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.

The human animal originally came from out-of-doors. When spring begins to move in his bones, he just must get out again. Moreover, as civilization, cement pavements, office buildings, radios have overwhelmed us, the need for regeneration has increased, and the impulses are even stronger.

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.

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

The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car.

Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.

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.

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

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

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

It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.

Writing means sharing. It’s part of the human condition to want to share things – thoughts, ideas, opinions.

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.

Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

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

I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, ‚I write for money.‘ Yes, I think everybody should be paid handsomely; I insist on it, and I pay people who work for me, or with me, handsomely.

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.

When I was younger we had a grape arbor, and my mom would go out and pick grapes and make grape jam in the sink – boil it, put it in jars, and give it away as gifts.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

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.

It takes two to make a murder. There are born victims, born to have their throats cut, as the cut-throats are born to be hanged.

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

Innovation is a good thing. The human condition – put aside bioterrorism and a few footnotes – is improving because of innovation.

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.

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.

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.

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

I think God’s going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.