I tell Thee that man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creatures is born. But only one who can appease their conscience can take over their freedom […] Instead of taking men's freedom from them, Thou didst make it greater than ever! Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil?

But what are years, what are months!" he would exclaim. "Why count the days, when even one day is enough for man to know all happiness.

Until you have become really, in actual fact, as brother to everyone, brotherhood will not come to pass.

... you can never be sure of what has passed between husband and wife or lover and mistress.

If it were considered desirable to destroy a human being, the only thing necessary would be to give his work a character of uselessness

It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords and killed one another. They have invented gods and challenged each other: "Discard your gods and worship mine or I will destroy both your gods and you!"

A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.