The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind.

Often, the thing we pursue most passionately is but a substitute for the one thing we really want and cannot have.

Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken.

The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

No one has a right to happiness.

Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.