We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.

No one can keep his griefs in their prime; they use themselves up.

Mind, even more deadly to empires than to individuals, erodes them, compromises their solidity.

A civilization begins to decline the moment Life becomes its sole obsession.

For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.

Illusion begets and sustains the world; we do not destroy one without destroying the other. Which is what I do every day. An apparently ineffectual operation, since I must begin all over again the next day.

Not to be born is undoubtedly the best plan of all. Unfortunately, it is within no one's reach.