When a man speaks of the need for realism one may be sure that this is always the prelude to some bloody deed.

Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing completely straight was ever made

No perfect solution is, not merely in practice, but in principle, possible in human affairs, and any determined attempt to produce it is likely to lead to suffering, disillusionment and failure.

True knowledge is knowledge of why things are as they are, and not merely what they are.

The most passionate, consistent, extreme and implacable enemy of the Enlightenment and ... all forms of rationalism ... was Johann Georg Hamann. His influence, direct and indirect, upon the romantic revolt against universalism and scientific method ... was considerable and perhaps crucial.

The first people totalitarians destroy or silence are men of ideas and free minds.