We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder. - André Maurois

Thinking is easy, said Goethe, acting is difficult, and to put one's thought into action is the most difficult thing in the world. And Tolstoy: It is easier to produce ten volumes of philosophical writing than to put one principle into practice.

Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage.

"Nothing," wrote General de Gaulle, "strengthens authority so much as silence." Speech dilutes thought; it allows one's courage to leak away - in short, it dissipates the concentration that is required.