Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character.

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.

Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.

Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.

To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. It not infrequently happens that those who hunger for hope give their allegiance to him who offers them a grievance.

There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on.

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