Every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning.

Man's chief moral deficiency appears to be not his indiscretions but his reticence.

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Imperialism was born when the ruling class in capitalist production came up against national limits to its economic expansion.

Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.

... whatever men do or know or experience can make sense only to the extent that it can be spoken about. There may be truths beyond speech, and they may be of great relevance to man in the singular, that is, to man in so far as he is not a political being, whatever else he may be. Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.

Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.