Hitherto man had to live with the idea of death as an individual; from now onward mankind will have to live with the idea of its death as a species.

The fact is: I no longer believe in my own infallibility. That is why I am lost.

The 'gallows' are not only a symbol of death, but also a symbol of cruelty, terror and irreverence for life; the common denominator of primitive savagery, medieval fanaticism and modern totalitarianism.

The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.

[My father] loved me tenderly and shyly from a distance, and later on took a naive pride in seeing my name in print.

Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate.

The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know.