EVERY intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are.

Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat.

Learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the market place and on the battlefield men who set their hearts on toys have often displayed unequal initiative and drive. And one must be ignorant of the creative process to look for a close correspondence between motive and achievement in the world of thought and imagination.

Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken.

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

It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.