Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.

For me a simple message, to think and act with courage, independence and imagination.

If one holds these high principles clearly before one's eyes, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears glaringly that civilized mankind finds itself at present in grave danger. In the totalitarian states it is the rulers themselves who strive actually to destroy that spirit of humanity. In less threatened parts it is nationalism and intolerance, as well as the oppression of the individuals by economic means, which threaten to choke these most precious traditions.

If one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgments of the individuals; they are there, that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence.

Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other, and in our time more so than ever.

It would be a sad situation if the bag was better than the meat wrapped in it.

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves. This ethical basis I call the ideal of the pigsty.