It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.

The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.

It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.

The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.

Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.

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.

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

The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.

A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.

Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.

When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.

Youth itself is a talent, a perishable talent.

It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.

Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.

The greatest weariness comes from work not done.

We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect.

It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.

Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible.

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.

There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

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.