Animals often strike us as passionate machines.

To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes -- we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.

The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breed pride and arrogance. The true believer is apt to see himself as one of the chosen, the salt of the earth, a prince disguised in meekness, who is destined to inherit this earth and the kingdom of heaven, too. He who is not of his faith is evil; he who will not listen shall perish.

It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.