For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.

However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.

A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.

Communists are frustrated capitalists.

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

A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.