Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.

Imitation is often a shortcut to a solution. We copy when we lack the inclination, the ability or the time to work out an independent solution. People in a hurry will imitate more readily than people at leisure. Hustling thus tends to produce uniformity. And in the deliberate fusing of individuals into a compact group, incessant action will play a considerable role.

Animals often strike us as passionate machines.

What Pascal said of an effective religion is true of any effective doctrine: it must be "contrary to nature, to common sense and to pleasure.

To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint.

Those who feel guilty are afraid; and those who are afraid somehow feel guilty. To the onlooker, too, the fearful seem guilty.