Results only come to those who master the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent unknown quantity may take hold. We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind in which understanding may come to us.

Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right

One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.

The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations.

In all activities of life, the secret of efficiency lies in an ability to combine two seemingly incompatible states: a state of maximum activity and a state of maximum relaxation.