I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?

Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.

I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, however much you spend in men and money." (On Vietnam War)

Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history?