“To be loved is to be fortunate, but to be hated is to achieve distinction.”
“The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life is an achievement. To do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.”
“My maxim was, la carrière est ouverte aux talents, without distinction of birth or fortune.”
“Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don’t ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul.”
“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.”
“We are in the process of disabling our most distinctive achievement - our educational system - in the name of making the country more like itself.”