Dictatorships are one-way streets. Democracy boasts two-way traffic.

And we all know love is a glass which makes even a monster appear fascinating.

The ratio of literacy to illiteracy is constant, but nowadays the illiterates can read and write.

The less one notices happiness, the greater it is.

It is what we are forced to do that forms our character, not what we do of our own free will.

When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.

I do not foresee a time when I shall feel that I have nothing to say.

I like to compare my method with that of painters centuries ago, proceeding from layer to layer.

War has become an affair of machines...and soldiers are little more than clever mechanics.

The novel as we knew it in the nineteenth century was killed off by Proust and Joyce.

I don't think it's possible to write a good novel around a negative personality.

That's the news from Lake Woebegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

Hate is the wrath of the weak.

You never really want anything you can easily have.

If you want to build a business, build the people.

Neurosis is an inner cleavage-the state of being at war with oneself.

The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.

The sciences have ever been the surest guides to virtue.

Those who speak much are blamed, those who speak little are blamed. In this world there are none who are not blamed. Try not to blame.

Self-knowledge makes me happy.

To imagine that it is possible to perform great military deeds without fighting is just empty dreams.