Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.

Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.

To the old, the new is usually bad news.

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience... The desire to escape or camouflage their unsatisfactory selves develops in the frustrated a facility for pretending -- for making a show -- and also a readiness to identify themselves wholly with an imposing spectacle.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.