Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.
The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts.
To the old, the new is usually bad news.
There can be no freedom without freedom to fail.
We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it.
A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one’s own life.
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
We cannot hate those who we despise.
We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for.
Woe to him inside a non-conformist clique who does not conform to non-conformity.
The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.