The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. "To establish Anarchy." "Anarchy will be instituted." But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require protection from governmental power, and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power.
Real art, like the wife of an affectionate husband, needs no ornaments. But counterfeit art, like a prostitute, must always be decked out. The cause of production of real art is the artist's inner need to express a feeling that has accumulated...The cause of counterfeit art, as of prostitution, is gain. The consequence of true art is the introduction of a new feeling into the intercourse of life... The consequences of counterfeit art are the perversion of man, pleasure which never satisfies, and the weakening of man's spiritual strength.
A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea dropped out. He tried to pick it up, and split twenty. He tried to pick up the twenty, and split them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered the peas in all directions and ran away
All the true heroes of history will be forgotten and all the villains will be remembered as heroes.
All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
For if we allow that human life is always guided by reason, we destroy the premise that life is possible at all.
How can one be well...when one suffers morally?
Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself.
Life consists in penetrating the unknown, and fashioning our actions in accord with the new knowledge thus acquired.
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
I can't understand how anyone can write without rewriting everything over and over again.
Human love serves to love those dear to us but to love one's enemies we need divine love.
My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he may sense the new plans and aims revealed to him by reason, he continues to plod along in old paths until his life becomes frustrating and unbearable-he finally makes the change only when his usual life can no longer be tolerated.
It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
The magnanimity and sensibility of a lady who faints when she sees a calf being killed: she is so kindhearted that she can't look at blood, but enjoys eating the calf served up with sauce.
Where there is love, there is God also.
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
A leader is the wave pushed ahead by the ship.
I have discovered nothing new; I have only perceived what I already knew.
Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
If so many men, so many minds, certainly so many hearts, so many kinds of love.
The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born.
The true meaning of Christ's teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.
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