When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic change. We cling to what we call our common sense, our practical point of view. Actually, these are names for an all-absorbing familiarity with things as they are. . . . Thus it happens that when the times become unhinged, it is the practical people who are caught unaware . . . still clinging to things that no longer exist.

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.

We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs subordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.

It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music.

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.