Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.

Many people genuinely do not want to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.

Bombing is not especially inhumane. War itself is inhumane and the bombing plane, which is used to paralyse industry and transport, is a relatively civilised weapon. 'Normal' or 'legitimate' warfare is just as destructive of inanimate objects and enormously so of human lives.

His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” —which he had adopted as his personal motto.

What happens to you here is forever.

One wants to live, of course, indeed one only stays alive by virtue of the fear of death.

In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion; the more intelligent, the less sane.