If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire 20th century... I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: Men have forgotten God.

Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.

Only a magician can fix a head on a body, but any fool can lop it off.

I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.

Surely people should eventually cease to be surprised at anything? And yet they continue to be.

Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you - you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.

If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?