When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of 'greatness.' 'Greatness,' it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the 'great' man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a 'great' man can be blamed.

Power is the sum total of the wills of the mass, transfered by express or tactic agreement to rulers chosen by the masses.

War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.

If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side! If it is not the right way, then show me another way; but if I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you.

Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?

Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.

Rest, nature, books, music...such is my idea of happiness.