“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.”

I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.

It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

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

Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

Take man’s most fantastic invention- God. Man invents God in the image of his longings, in the image of what he wants to be, then proceeds to imitate that image, vie with it, and strive to overcome it.

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.

A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one’s own life.

Language was invented to ask questions.

An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.

To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

For a woman betrayal has no sense – one cannot betray one’s passions.

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.

Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.

For in other ways a woman is full of fear, defenseless, dreads the sight of cold steel; but, when once she is wronged in the matter of love, no other soul can hold so many thoughts of blood.

Aloneness and selfness are too important to betray for company.

Silence is a true friend who never betrays.