Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to him from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible. And it's true of everybody. Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.

Whoever debases others is debasing himself.

I am certainly convinced that it is one of the greatest impulses of mankind to arrive at something higher than a natural state.

It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate.

Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.

Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

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