“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties—but right through every human heart.”
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy.”
“In the end, the only weapon against totalitarianism is the truth.”
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.”
“The meaning of earthly existence lies not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.”
“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.”
“The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.”
“Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity.”
“When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.”
“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.”
“If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?”
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
“Our capacity for self-delusion is boundless.”
“A society that has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society that has lost its culture.”
“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”
“No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death.”
“Do not pursue what is illusory—property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves over decades, is confiscated in one fell night.”
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century.”
“The sole substitute for an experience we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature.”
“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life.”
“The human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today’s mass living habits.”
“The more a man becomes preoccupied with himself, the further he is from what constitutes his true being.”
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future.”
“Let your memory be your travel bag.”
“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes; we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions—especially selfish ones.”
“The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization.”
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.”
“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”
“The greatness of art is not in its accuracy of depiction but in the truth it conveys.”
“A loss of courage may be the most striking feature of the West today.”
“Woe to that nation whose literature is disturbed by the intervention of power.”
“Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.”
“We cannot have freedom without responsibility, and responsibility itself is freedom.”
“Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.”
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation: that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
“Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.”
“To do evil, a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good.”
“Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.”
“The most important contribution of culture is to bring us closer to understanding ourselves.”
“What is most precious is never to allow the lies to dominate your life.”
“The decline of courage is the beginning of the end.”
“To stand up for truth is nothing short of heroic.”
“A nation that forgets its past has no future.”
“The task of art and literature is to help us understand the truth about ourselves.”
“Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.”
“The goal of totalitarianism is to turn people into perfect tools for its machinery.”
“Only by overcoming fear can we live in true freedom.”
“To taste the true depth of freedom, one must struggle for it.”
“A man becomes free when he recognizes that he is subject to nothing except the truth.”