Clothes, when abstracted from the flow of present time and their transmogrifying function on the human body, and seen as forms in themselves, are strange tubes and excrescences worthy of being classed with such facial decorations as the ring through the nose or the lip-stretching disk. But how enchanting they become when seen togetherwith the qualities they bestow on their wearer! What happens then is no less than the infusion, into some tangled lines on a piece of paper, of the meaning of a great word.

The truth is not a crystal that can be slipped into one's pocket, but an endless current into which one falls headlong.

True' and 'false' are the evasions of people who never want to arrive at a decision. Truth is something without end.

If there is a sense of reality, there must also be a sense of possibility.

The proverbial notion of historical distance consists in our having lost ninety-five of every hundred original facts, so the remaining ones can be arranged however one likes.

You proclaim that one should die for the highest virtues, because you take it for granted that nobody's been living for them, not even for a single hour.

[...] a number of flawed individuals can often add up to a brilliant social unit.