A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.

It was as though we were a picture, trapped in time: this had been happening for hundreds of years, people sitting in a room, waiting for dinner, and listening to the blues.

There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.

People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen forget.