I would give something to know for whose sake precisely those deeds were really done which report says were done for the fatherland.

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

It is a question whether, when we break a murderer on the wheel, we do not fall into the error a child makes when it hits the chair it has bumped into.

We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

The course of the seasons is a piece of clockwork, with a cuckoo to call when it is spring.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.