“The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.”

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.

A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

So that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate.

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.

Heidegger makes the distinction between being absorbed in the way things are in the world and being aware that things are in the world.

I think the British have the distinction above all other nations of being able to put new wine into old bottles without bursting them.

These infinitesimal distinctions between man and man are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being. How these madmen give themselves away! The real God taketh heed lest a sparrow fall. But the God created from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow.

Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.

It is a badge of distinction, an emblem of success, without having to say too much about it.

There’s an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I’m disabled.

The distinction between right and wrong (“la distinction du bien et du mal”, Fr.), is nothing else than their unyielding (or implacable) opposition.