“What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together”

“[Flaubert] didn’t just hate the railway as such; he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together.”

“Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you. ”

“The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear.”

“Our scientific advances will be merely obscene unless they help the large part of our world's population emerge from miserable uncertainty and debilitating terror.”

“This reconciliation with Hitler reveals the profound moral perversity of a world that rests essentially on the nonexistence of return, for in this world everything is pardoned in advance and therefore everything cynically permitted.”