“Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.”

“The national interest cannot be defined as a common interest of the industrial, commercial, and financial companies of a country, because there is no such common interest; nor can it be defined as the life, liberty, and well-being of the citizens, because they are continually being adjured to sacrifice their well-being, their liberty, and their lives to the national interest. In the end a study of modern history leads to the conclusion that the national interest of every State consists in its capacity to make war.”

“Affliction hardens and discourages us because, like a red hot iron, it stamps the soul to its very depths with the scorn, the disgust, and even the self-hatred and sense of guilt that crime logically should produce but actually does not.”

“Stars and blossoming fruit trees: Utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity.”

“We cannot take a single step towards heaven.It is not In our power to travel in a vertical direction.If however we look heavenward for a long time, God comes and takes us up.He raises us easily.”

“We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us.”

“At the very best, a mind enclosed in language is in prison. It is limited to the number of relations which words can make simultaneously present to it; and remains in ignorance of thoughts which involve the combination of a greater number. These thoughts are outside language, they are unformulable, although they are perfectly rigorous and clear and although every one of the relations they involve is capable of precise expression in words. So the mind moves in a closed space of partial truth, which may be larger or smaller, without ever being able so much as to glance at what is outside.”