The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.

We should have had socialism already, but for the socialists, am quite willing to drop the name if dropping it will help me to get the thing.

I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. That is the only disadvantage of vegetarianism.

Religion is a good invention in times of stress.

Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind. It is the deed that teaches not the name we give it.