“It is very difficult to make one's way in this world without being wicked at one time or another, when the world's way is so wicked to being with.”

“I want to see the world without explaining away its mystery by calling things wicked, righteous, sinful, and good. I want to erase in myself the easy explanations, the always mendacious explanations about why things happen the way they do, and in this way, come to know the mystery of being–-not by any approximation in thought, but by being. I want to be and not be ashamed of being.”

“One must be cunning and wicked in this world.”

“He was one of your wicked, fascinating men. After he got married he left off being fascinating and just kept on being wicked.”

“Whether the British ruling class are wicked or merely stupid is one of the most difficult questions of our time, and at certain moments a very important question.”

“A perfectly tuned conversation is a vision of sanity--a ratification of one's way of being human and one's way in the world.”