In history the way of annihilation is invariably prepared by inward degeneration, by decrease of life. Only then can a shock from outside put an end to the whole.

Only a fairy tale calls a constant condition 'happiness'.

The biggest mischief in the past century has been perpetrated by Rousseau with his doctrine of the goodness of human nature. The mob and the intellectuals derived from it the vision of a Golden Age which would arrive without fail once the noble human race could act according to its whims.

The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.

Neither in the life of the individual nor in that of mankind is it desirable to know the future.

True universality does not consist in knowing much but in loving much.