Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous. Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

Experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house. It is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing, and hearing the significant thing, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and coordinating. Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.

You've got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can't think of the really good, penetrating, X-rayish phrases.

But every one belongs to every one else

Every gain made by individuals or society is almost instantly taken for granted.