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.

The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

I thought: hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.

Though love is instinctive, it cannot develop without a certain stimulus and use.

But if a few awake, you can't say there is no hope of destroying the iron house.

I naturally believe there will be a future, but I do not waste my time imagining its radiant beauty. ... It seems to me that we ought to think first about the present. Even if the present is desperately dark, I do not wish to leave it. Will tomorrow be free from darkness? We'll talk about that tomorrow.