The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs.

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems give me work give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

Only the most unapologetic biblical fundamentalists for instance take every biblical injunction literally. If we all took all scripture at the same level of authority then we would be more open to slavery to the subjugation of women to wider use of stoning. Jesus himself spoke out frequently against divorce in the strongest of terms.

You don't argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn't eat candy for dinner. You don't punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don't argue when a women tells you she's only making 80 cents to your dollar. It's the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.

Hatred is corrosive of a person's wisdom and conscience the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit instigate brutal life and death struggles destroy a society's tolerance and humanity and block a nation's progress to freedom and democracy.

Even by common wisdom there seem to be both people and objects in my dream that are outside myself but clearly they were created in myself and are part of me they are mental constructs in my own brain.

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

The reason that war is such a fascinating subject for writers is because it's a revealer. Put a bunch of people in an adrenaline-fuelled life-or-death situation and their fundamental behaviours are exposed the scrim is taken away and the motivations behind each personality come out to play.

We've finally given liberals a war against fundamentalism and they don't want to fight it. They would except that it would put them on the same side as the United States.