The unattractive thing about chauvinism is not so much the aversion to other nations as the love of one's own.

The triumph of morality: A thief who has broken into a bedroom claims his sense of shame had been outraged, and by threatening theoccupants with exposure of an immoral act he blackmails them into not bringing charges for burglary.

A good stylist should have narcissistic enjoyment as he works. He must be able to objectivize his work to such an extent that he catches himself feeling envious and has to jog his memory to find that he is himself the creator. In short, he must display that highest degree of objectivity which the world calls vanity.

Christian morality prefers remorse to precede lust, and then lust not to follow.

Let language be the divining rod that finds the sources of thought.

A historian is often only a journalist facing backwards.

Morality is a burglar's tool whose merit lies in never being left behind at the scene of the crime.