Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

Defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom, and above all futility.

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures-in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.

Living is being born slowly. It would be a little too easy if we could borrow ready-made souls.

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another.

Even though human life may be the most precious thing on earth, we always behave as if there were something of higher value than human life.

If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.