In moments of despair, we look on ourselves lead-enly as objects; we see ourselves, our lives, as someone else might see them and may even be driven to kill ourselves if the separation, the "knowledge," seems sufficiently final.

Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.

it came to me, as we sat there, glumly ordering lunch, that for extremely stupid people anti-Semitism was a form of intellectuality, the sole form of intellectuality of which they were capable. It represented, in a rudimentary way, the ability to make categories, to generalize.

The consumer today is the victim of the manufacturer who launches on him a regiment of products for which he must make room in his soul.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

If you want to be your own master ... always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it.

Be truthful... and pay attention. I would also recommend the avoidance of credit cards.