There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.
Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.
For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life.
Creativity is discontent translated into arts.
The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious viciousness toward its own kind. Humanization was not a leap forward but a groping toward survival.
Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
We feel free when we escape – even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate.
The fear of becoming a ‘has-been’ keeps some people from becoming anything.
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.
Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.