By all odds, earliest man, so naked to the elements and to deadly enemies, should have existed in a state of constant shock. We find him instead the only lighthearted being in a deadly serious universe.... He alone, with childish carelessness, tinkered and played, and exerted himself more in the pursuit of superfluities than of necessities. Yet the tinkering and playing, and the fascination with the nonessential, were a chief source of the inventiveness which enabled man to prevail over better-equipped and more-purposeful animals.

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

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.

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

Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.