The "terror" of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years.

Doctrines like Christianity or Islam or Marxism require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions.

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

The critics say that Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony has no form. They are wrong; it has the form of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.

My own best books have not been published. In fact, they've not even been written yet.

Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless.

A life without tragedy would not be worth living.