International affairs will be placed on a better footing when it is understood that there is no way of punishing a people for the crimes of its rulers.

Psychoanalysts are not occupied with the minds of their patients; they do not believe in the mind but in a cerebral intestine.

The Renaissance had resulted in the emancipation of the individual, in making him feel that the universe had no other purpose than his happiness. This brought an entirely new answer to the question, 'Why should I do this or that?' It used to be, 'Because self-instituted authority command you.' The answer now was, 'Because it is good for men.' In this lies our greatest debt to the Renaissance, that it instituted the welfare of men as the end of all action.

Government is the art of the momentary feasible, of the least bad attainable, and not of the rationally most desirable.

I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, begging passerby to drop their unused minutes into it.

A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the oneself that there is no self left to die.

You can parody and make fun of almost anything, but that does not turn the universe into a caricature.