One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.

The will-to-live becomes the will-to-power.

Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.

Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument.

That is the truth about man - that he has a curious kind of dignity, but also a curious kind of misery, and that these forms of agnosticism don't understand.

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.