Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!

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

However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

I have a premonition that will not leave me: as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.

The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new . . . is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.