Now, however, I see the folly of attempting to hitch one's wagon to a star with a harness that does not belong to it.

What can rulers, nobility and all the lords of the earth say to justify the horrible killing and maiming of twenty or thirty million valuable men who a short while ago ploughed, dug, wove, built, guided the traffic of the world, took their pleasure, loved their fellows, cherished their families, and feared naught?

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.

It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

I never fight, except against difficulties.

A man can't make a place for himself in the sun if he keeps taking refuge under the family tree.