He formed his sentences hesitantly and then threw them at me with such force that I felt as if I were receiving a present each time

Self-knowledge is no guarantee of happiness, but it is on the side of happiness and can supply the courage to fight for it.

Sometimes speech is no more than a device for saying nothing - and a neater one than silence.

Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility.

Sometimes you can accept an important post, on condition that it really puts you in a position to help women. Unfortunately, women who have important posts very often adopt masculine standards-power, ambition, personal success - and cut themselves off from other women.

When Goya was 80 he drew an ancient man propped on two sticks, with a great mass of white hair and beard all over his face, and the inscription, "I am still learning."

They [Americans] want to believe that Good and Evil can be defined in precise categories, that Good is already, or will be easily achieved. ... if this optimism appears too superficial, they will try to create a kind of anti-God: the U.S.S.R. That is Evil, and it only needs to be annihilated to re-establish the reign of Good.