No doubt alcohol tobacco and so forth are things that a saint must avoid but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.
No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred.
Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that y...
The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.
It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have...
There is a humility about genuine love that is rather horrible in some ways.
The point is that you have here a direct, unmistakable assault on sanity and decency; and even - since some of Dali’s pictures would tend to poison the imagination like a pornographic postcard - on li...
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.
When it comes to the pinch human beings are heroic.
Good novel are written by people who are not frightened.
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.
In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?
It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have...
In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of polities'. All issues are political issues.