A strong experience in the present awakens in the creative writer a memory of an earlier experience (usually belonging to his childhood) from which there now proceeds a wish which finds its fulfilment in the creative work.

A father's death is the most important event, the more heartbreaking and poignant loss in a man's life.

The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization, though then, it is true, it had for the most part no value, since the individual was scarcely in a position to defend it. The development of civilization imposes restrictions on it, and justice demands that no one shall escape those restrictions.

A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.

Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.

To be completely honest with oneself is the very best effort a human being can make.