A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.

Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to create a machine, and it was by learning the inner working of nature that man became a builder of machines.

We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.

To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.

The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life.