To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Action is the last refuge of those who cannot dream.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

The basis for optimism is sheer terror.

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.