In Russia there is an emigration of intelligence: émigrés cross the frontier in order to read and to write good books. But in doing so they contribute to making their fatherland, abandoned by spirit, into the gaping jaws of Asia that would like to swallow our little Europe.

There's no defense against stupidity.

A nation that still believes in itself holds fast to its own god.

...the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.

In affability there is no hatred of men, but for that very reason there is all too much contempt for men.

A vocation is the backbone of life.

What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering