It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate.

People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.

We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

Man is a luxury-loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.

The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wish, and brings to the front men with insatiable appetites for action, power and all that the world has to offer.

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.