A knowledge of history as detailed as possible is essential if we are to comprehend the present and be prepared for the future. Fate...is not the blind superstition or helplessness that waits stupidly for what may happen. Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance.

I learned early to understand that there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people see it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The damage such perception did to me I have felt ever sinceI could never belong entirely to one side of any question.

Sooner or later the young always betrayed the old.

None but the ignorant can be bored by life. To the lovers of learning, life is pure adventure shared with adventurers.

At my age the bones are water in the morning until food is given them.

God is not in the vastness of greatness. He is hid in the vastness of smallness . He is not in the general. He is in the particular.

destructiveness comes only when life isn't lived. People who can live their lives don't destroy themselves.