Americans and Englishmen, when they become acquainted with the Balkans, feel an astonished contempt when they study the mutual enmities of Bulgarians and Serbs, of Hungarians and Rumanians. It is evident to them that these enmities are absurd and that the belief of each little nation in its own superiority has no objective basis. But most of them are quite unable to see that the national pride of a Great Power is essentially as unjustifiable as that of a little Balkan country.

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Human nature is so constructed that it gives affection most readily to those who seem least to demand it.

Real life is, to most men, a long second best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible.

When all experts agree, you need to watch out.

It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.