I naturally believe there will be a future, but I do not waste my time imagining its radiant beauty. ... It seems to me that we ought to think first about the present. Even if the present is desperately dark, I do not wish to leave it. Will tomorrow be free from darkness? We'll talk about that tomorrow.

Women have a mother-nature and a daughter-nature; there are no women with a wife-nature. The quality of wife is an acquired character; it is a combination of mother and daughter.

Hope can be neither affirmed nor denied. Hope is like a path in the countryside: originally there was no path-yet, as people are walking all the time in the same spot, a way appears.

Although bedbugs are unpleasant when they suck your blood, at least they bite you without a word, which is quite straightforward and frank. Mosquitoes are different. Of course, their method of piercing the skin may be considered fairly thoroughgoing; but before biting, they insist on making a long speech, which is irritating. If they are expounding on the reasons that make it right for them to feed on human blood, that is even more irritating. I am glad I do not know their language.

Trust only him who doubts.

The most horrible thing is not a government that stages public executions, but a government that secretly disposes of its victims.

When a great man has become petrified, and everyone begins to proclaim his greatness, he has already turned into a puppet.

Whoever thinks he is objective must already be half drunk.

When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them, you will suit each other very well.

If there are still men who really want to live in this world, they should first dare to speak out, to laugh, to cry, to be angry, to accuse, to fight-that they may at least cleanse this accursed place of its accursed atmosphere!