Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.

To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.

Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own. Whether it is our own meaningless self we are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence, we can do it only in a frenzy of faith.