I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.

Never feel remorse for what you have thought about your wife; she has thought much worse things about you.

If a given scientist had not made a given discovery, someone else would have done so a little later. Johann Mendel dies unknown after having discovered the laws of heredity: thirty-five years later, three men rediscover them. But the book that is not written will never be written. The premature death of a great scientist delays humanity; that of a great writer deprives it.

Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.

God, that checkroom of our dreams.

There are moments when very little truth would be enough to shape opinion. One might be hated at extremely low cost.