Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.

Imitation is often a shortcut to a solution. We copy when we lack the inclination, the ability or the time to work out an independent solution. People in a hurry will imitate more readily than people at leisure. Hustling thus tends to produce uniformity. And in the deliberate fusing of individuals into a compact group, incessant action will play a considerable role.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.

A peculiar side of credulity is that it is often joined with a proneness to imposture. The association of believing and lying is not characteristic solely of children. They inability or unwillingness to see things as they are promotes both gullibility and charlatanism.