Aggressiveness is not the main trouble with the human species, but rather an excess capacity for fanatical devotion.

The temptations of God were always more dangerous for mankind than those of Satan.

There is only one prospect worse than being chained to an intolerable existence: The nightmare of a botched attempt to end it.

What is an editor but a cross between a fall guy and a father figure? arthur koestler

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Boredom sets into boring minds. The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.

The greatest temptation for the like of us is: to renounce violence, to repent, to make peace with oneself. Most revolutionaries fell before this temptation, from Spartacus to Danton and Dostoevsky; they are the classical form of betrayal of the cause. The temptations of God were always more dangerous for mankind than those of Satan. As long as chaos dominates the world, God is an anachronism; and every compromise with one’s own conscience is perfidy. When the accursed inner voice speaks to you, hold your hands over your ears….

I am not sure whether ethical absolutes exist. But I am sure that we have to act as if they existed or civilization perishes.