“Wherever groups disclosed themselves, or could be introduced, simplicity crystallized out of comparative chaos.”

“What were once felt to be defects-isolation, institutional simplicity, primitiveness of manners, multiplicity of religions, weaknesses in the authority of the state-could now be seen as virtues, not only by Americans themselves but by enlightened spokesmen of reform, renewal and hope wherever they may be-in London coffeehouses, in Parisian salons, in the courts of German princes.”

“My wisdom is as spurned as chaos. What is my nothingness, compared to the amazement that awaits you?”

“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”

“Out of clutter, find simplicity.”

“All times are changing times, but ours is one of massive, rapid moral and mental transformation. Archetypes turn into millstones, large simplicities get complicated, chaos becomes elegant, and what everybody knows is true turns out to be what some people used to think.”

“Cherish the Minnesota State Fair. Wherever you find beauty and simplicity and truth, know that there is a committee somewhere planning to improve it --- don't let them do it.”

“There they go, off to Venus, just for the ride, thinking that they will find a planet like a seer's crystal, in which to read a miraculous future. What they'll find, instead, is the somewhat shopworn image of themselves. Mars is a mirror, not a crystal.”

“What Youth deemed crystal,
Age finds out was dew.”

“A great deal of the chaos in the world occurs because people don't appreciate themselves.”