The hope of any nation lies in the personal qualities of its individual members.

they're the sort of people one invites to lunch or tea, but never to dinner.

a diplomat ... is not worthy of the name unless he can say 'no' and make the other person like it - or at least not be offended by it.

If Democracy should fail, it would be because we had been so lacking in self-discipline that our personal problems had taken all our substance and energies, leaving us nothing of value to contribute to the commonwealth.

The steadily inward look leads us all to death, nations as well as persons, and is equally infantile in them all. Perhaps the most useful thing I have learned in my lifetime is that the process of maturing gradually turns the mind away from the small-self to the greater-self that is only served by serving others.

The very thing that seems to impede your progress can often be turned to account for you.

All life is a delusion of the senses.