[He] understood the people in a new way...The people is not everyone who speaks our language, nor yet the elect marked by the fiery stamp of genius. Not by birth, not by the work of one's hands, not by the wings of education is one elected into the people. But by one's inner self. Everyone forges his inner self year after year. One must try to temper, to cut, to polish one's soul so as to become a human being. And thereby become a tiny particle of one's own people.

As for Europe, its claims towards Russia are fairly transparently based on fears about energy, unjustified fears at that.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

It is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.

I would rather have the United States as the world's policeman than the Soviet Union as the world's jailer.

Good or evil-you cannot build your life apart from this distinction.

Human beings are better and lazier than their rules and instructions.