We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact

To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain enormously in confidence before he could conceive an all-powerful God who obeys his own laws.

Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.

It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the market place and on the battlefield men who set their hearts on toys have often displayed unequal initiative and drive. And one must be ignorant of the creative process to look for a close correspondence between motive and achievement in the world of thought and imagination.

Action can give us the feeling of being useful, but only words can give us a sense of weight and purpose.

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.

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.