The power to command frequently causes failure to think.

When the gap between ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

The poets have familiarized more people with history than have the historians.

I have always felt like an artist when I work on a book. I see no reason why the word should always be confined to writers of fiction and poetry.

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one's own prose.

Rome had Caesar, a man of remarkable governing talents, although it must be said that a ruler who arouses opponents to resort to assassination is probably not as smart as he ought to be.