Excesses are essentially gestures. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble or self-sacrificing when we see ourselves as actors in a performance.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement.

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him.