Hope was an instinct only the reasoning human mind could kill. An animal never knew despair.

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

You must promise me. You can't desire the end without desiring the means.' Ah, but one can, he thought, one can: one can desire the peace of victory without desiring the ravaged towns.

I can't talk you in terms of time --your time and my time are different

Cynicism is cheap - you can buy it at any Monoprix store - it's built into all poor-quality goods.

They can print statistics and count the populations in hundreds of thousands, but to each man a city consists of no more than a few streets, a few houses, a few people. Remove those few and a city exists no longer except as a pain in the memory, like a pain of an amputated leg no longer there.

I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect - it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.