We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much.

What a host of little incidents, all deep-buried in the past -- problems that had once been urgent, arguments that had once been keen, anecdotes that were funny only because one remembered the fun. Did any emotion really matter when the last trace of it had vanished from human memory; and if that were so, what a crowd of emotions clung to him as to their last home before annihilation? He must be kind to them, must treasure them in his mind before their long sleep.

You will have Time, that rare and lovely gift that your Western countries have lost the more they have pursued it.

Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value - the ultimate value of what one does.

Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it not be better if more people were slackers?

There are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen.

The first quarter-century of your life was doubtless lived under the cloud of being too young for things, while the last quarter-century would normally be shadowed by the still darker cloud of being too old for them; and between those two clouds, what small and narrow sunlight illumines a human lifetime!