Consistencyis the hobgoblin of little minds.

Any man's death diminishes me, because i am involved in mankind; and, therefore, never tend to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands ofinteractions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, allthe more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyonehas a small part of himself in both.

The power to do good is also the power to do harm.

Compromise,n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary thesatisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and isdeprived of nothing except what was justly his due.

Themost intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security andcalm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts andtheir conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

Twobirds disputed about a kernel, when a third swooped down and carried it off.

The more we see, the more we shall be able to imagine, and the more we imagine, the more we must think we see.

To do what others cannot do is talent. To do what talent cannot do is genius.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

Knowingthat everything's futile but still fighting, still raging against the dying ofthe light that's what motivates me all the time ... If you hold that sense offutility in your head for too long, it can begin to eat into you. You canstill be aware of it

By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to despise ourselves.