Society and the World

To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory.

Blind alleys and garden paths leading nowhere are the principal hazards in research.

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone.

Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied.

and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern.

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

I don’t think we should read for instruction but to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour’s reading would not dissipate.

Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.

To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at last, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

The noblest question in the world is What Good may I do in it ?

The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel. Anybody can behave well when things are going smoothly.

People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.

Power takes as ingratitude the writhing of its victims.

The real cause, the effective one, that makes men lose power is that they have become unworthy to exercise it.

The real cause, the effective one, that makes men lose power is that they have become unworthy to exercise it.

Power is pleasure; and pleasure sweetens pain.

The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

Those who have been once intoxicated with power . . . can never willingly abandon it.