The need always to lie and always to avoid the truth stripped everyone of what Custine called 'the two greatest gifts of God-the soul and the speech which communicates it.' People became hypocritical, cunning, mistrustful, cynical, silent, cruel, and indifferent to the fate of others as a result of the destruction of their own souls.

Where a reputation for intolerance is more feared than a reputation for vice itself, all manner of evil may be expected to flourish.

How many people does each of us know who claim to seek happiness but freely choose paths inevitably leading to misery?

Feeling good about yourself is not the same thing as doing good. Good policy is more important than good feelings.

When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.

It is only by having desire thwarted, and thereby learning to control it — in other words, by becoming civilized — that men become fully human.

A curious reversal in the locus of moral concern has taken place: people feel responsible for everything except for what they do.