The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he have roots and feels at home in the world.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

It is startling to see how the oppressed almost invariably shape themselves in the image of their hated oppressors.

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.

Radicalism itself ceases to be radical when absorbed mainly in preserving its control over a society or an economy.

The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty.