When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it.

You cannot gauge the intelligence of an American by talking with him; you must work with him. The American polishes and refines his way of doing things-even the most commonplace-the way the French of the 17th century polished their maxims.

Animals often strike us as passionate machines.

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint.

Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.

Action can give us the feeling of being useful, but only words can give us a sense of weight and purpose.