The Renaissance… was based on a new idea of the importance of the individual. But this was a fragile foundation, because individuals depended on constant applause and admiration to sustain them. There is a shortage of applause in the world, and there is not enough respect to go around.

The brain is full of lonely ideas, begging you to make some sense of them, to recognize them as interesting. The lazy brain just files them away in old pigeonholes, like a bureaucrat who wants an easy life. The lively brain picks and chooses and creates new works of art out of ideas.

The violent have been victorious for most of history because they kindled the fear with which everyone is born.

Never before have humans been so ambitious, have they thought that they could be much more than their parents were.

Two individuals, conversing honestly, can be inspired by the feeling that they are engaged in a joint enterprise, aiming at inventing an art which has not been tried before.

Change the way you think, and you are halfway to changing the world.

People in this world of superficial communication find themselves isolated and lonely and have difficult in talking about personal things that really matter to them.