The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

I have found, for example, that if I have to write upon sum rather difficult topic, the best plan is to think about it with very great intensity-the greatest intensity of which I am capable-for a few hours or days, and at the end of that time give orders, so to speak (to my subconscious mind) that the work is to proceed underground. After some months I return consciously to the topic and find that the work has been done.

Shakespeare . . . If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him [if you can].

Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it.

If the Church is not now as bad as the Soviet Government, that is due to the influence of those who attacked the Church

I feel as if one would only discover on one's death bed what one ought to have lived for

What else is there to make life tolerable? We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and to emptiness. Sometimes a voice of one drowning, and in a moment the silence returns. The world seems to me quite dreadful, the unhappiness of many people is very great, and I often wonder how they all endure it. It is usually the central thing around which their lives are built, and I suppose if they did not live most of their lives in the things of the moment, they would not be able to go on.