We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves.

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

We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.

Marriage has for women many equivalents of joining a mass movement. It offers them a new purpose in life, a new future and a new identity (a new name). The boredom of spinsters and of women who can no longer find joy and fulfillment in marriage stems from an awareness of a barren, spoiled life. By embracing a holy cause and dedicating their energies and substance to its advancement, they find a new life full of purpose and meaning.

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.

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

A low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men.