Nature attains perfection, but man never does.

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. The remarkable thing is that the cessation of the inner dialogue marks also the end of our concern with the world around us. It is as if we noted the world and think about it only when we have to report it to ourselves.

Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.

People haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.

It is startling to see how the oppressed almost invariably shape themselves in the image of their hated oppressors.

When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it.