Economists are like Aeolian harps, and the sounds that issue from them are determined by the winds that blow.

To every man in the world there is one person of whom he knows little: whom he would never recognize if he met him walking down the street, whose motives are a mystery to him. That is himself.

International relationships are preordained to be clumsy gestures based on imperfect knowledge.

There was too much hatred in the world; it was manifestly as dangerous as gunpowder, yet people let it lie about, in the way of ignition.

Art and propaganda have this much connection, that if a propaganda makes art impossible, it is clearly damned.

It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of his life, have to write a historical work. He would then realize that the human race is in quite a jam about truth.

Fiction and poetry are the only way one can stop time and give an account of an experience and nail it down so that it lasts for ever.