To talk over a quarrel, with its inevitable accompaniment of self-justification, is too much like handling cobwebs to be very successful.

there couldn't be war, unless lies were believed. War has to be nourished by lies.

as I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good.

silence is very moving to youth, for who knows what it hides?

There isn't any virtue where there has never been any temptation.

Every new truth begins in a shocking heresy.

Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.