Creation, even when it is a mere outpouring from the heart, wishes to find a public. By definition, creation is sociable. Yet it can be satisfied with merely one single reader: an old friend, a lover.

But anyone who thinks themselves genuinely unbiased is bound to be taken in.

When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them, you will suit each other very well.

You have to reform yourself before reforming society and the world.

When a great man has become petrified, and everyone begins to proclaim his greatness, he has already turned into a puppet.

The most horrible thing is not a government that stages public executions, but a government that secretly disposes of its victims.

As long as there shall be stones, the seeds of fire will not die.