It is essential to persuade the soldier that those he is being urged to massacre are bandits who do not deserve to live; before killing other good, decent fellows like himself, his gun would fall from his hands.
Andre Gide Quotes
Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death.
The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.
To what a degree the same past can leave different marks – and especially admit of different interpretations.
Of some forty families I have been able to observe, I know hardly four in which the parents do not act in such a way that nothing would be more desirable for the child than to escape their influence.
A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.
A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.
The greatest intelligence is precisely the one that suffers most from its own limitations.