A nation usually renews its youth on a political sick-bed, and there finds again the spirit which it had gradually lost in seeking and maintaining power.

The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one's self.

one does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood.

Democracy represents the disbelief in all great men and in all elite societies: everybody is everybody's equal.

People press toward the light not in order to see better but in order to shine better.--We are happy to regard the one before whomwe shine as light.

Many find their heart when they have lost their head.

To find everything profound - that is an inconvenient trait. It makes one strain one's eyes all the time, and in the end one finds more than one might have wished.