Luck serves ... as rationalization for every people that is not master of its own destiny.

By assigning his political rights to the state the individual also delegates his social responsibilities to it: he asks the state to relieve him of the burden of caring for the poor precisely as he asks for protection against criminals. The difference between pauper and criminal disappears - both stand outside society.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.

In order to go on living one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism.

The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the easy life of the gods would be a lifeless life.

The concept of unlimited expansion that alone can fulfill the hope for unlimited accumulation of capital, and brings about the aimless accumulation of power, makes the foundation of new political bodies - which up to the era of imperialism always had been the upshot of conquest - well-nigh impossible.

To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious.