“There are some lies that, under the right circumstances, are the only truth”

“There were in life rarely, if ever, "right" decisions, never perfect ones, only the best to be made under the circumstances.”

“All social groups groups make rules and attempt, at some times and under some circumstances, to enforce them. Social rules define situations and the kinds of behavior appropriate to them, specifying some actions as "right" and forbidding others as "wrong".”

“I guess under the right circumstances, a man will do just about anything.”

“I can imagine no greater catastrophe than if I were mistaken, and the theory were correct that what I consider secondary instincts or drives are actually primary instincts! Because in that case the emotional plague would rest upon the support of a natural law while its archenemies, truth and sociality, would be relying upon unfounded ethics. Until now both lies and truth have taken recourse to ethics. But only lies have profited because they were able to appear under the guise of truth. Under these circumstances, egoism, theft, petty selfishness, slander, etc., would be the natural rule. (26.july.1943)”

“There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is yours is the present.”