Moral progress has consisted in the main of protest against cruel customs, and of attempts to enlarge human sympathy.

Skilled work, of no matter what kind, is only done well by those who take a certain pleasure in it, quite apart from its utility, either to themselves in earning a living, or to the world through its outcome.

Most political leaders acquire their position by causing large numbers of people to believe that these leaders are actuated by altruistic desires

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

Thinking you know when in fact you don't is a fatal mistake, to which we are all prone

I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.