The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s own infallibility with a power to learn from past mistakes.

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

Her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from outside. It would not have occurred to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.

The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.

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.

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.