Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.

Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.

It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.

There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.

Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.

A man by himself is in bad company.

It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.

Man was nature's mistake she neglected to finish him and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

Facts are counterrevolutionary.

Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.

It is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to action, while the distant hope acts as an opiate.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question.

Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident.

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.

It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.

The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.

The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.

To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

To the old, the new is usually bad news.