The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality. East is West and West is East, and soon the twain will meet.

Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

Destroy it. There may be a redistribution of the land, but the natural inequality of men soon re-creates an inequality of possessions and privileges, and raises to power a new minority with essentially the same instincts as the old.

Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.

It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.

Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?

[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.