To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect.

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

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites-opposite bents, tastes, yearnings, loyalties. Where there is no polarity-where energies flow smoothly in one direction-there will be much doing but no music.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.