Permanent superiority has never been realized by any nation in history. After the rise comes the fall.
We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.
The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.
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.
“One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few.”
“I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to follow any idea, wise or mad that may present itself.”
“Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.”
“You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.”
“Appeal made to artists. First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me; delight my eyes afterwards if you can.”
“A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.”
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.