Totalitarianism spells simplification: an enormous reduction in the variety of aims, motives, interests, human types, and, above all, in the categories and units of power.

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

An easygoing person is probably more accessible to the realization of eternity--the endless flow of life and death--than one who takes his prospects and duties overseriously. It is the overserious who are truly frivolous.

Creativity is discontent translated into arts.

A sublime religion inevitably generates a strong feeling of guilt. There is an unavoidable contrast between loftiness of profession and imperfection of practice. And, as one would expect, the feeling of guilt promotes hate and brazenness. Thus it seems that the more sublime the faith the more virulent the hatred it breeds.

A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.

It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.