“The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution!”

“If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.”

“Imagination is everything”

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats.”

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”

“Keep fighting until the last buzzer sounds.”

“live as if you were to die tommorow. dream as if you were to live forever”

“I was originally supposed to become an engineer but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.”

“I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”

“The tendencies we have mentioned are something new for America. They arose when, under the influence of the two World Wars and the consequent concentration of all forces on a military goal, a predominantly military mentality developed, which with the almost sudden victory became even more accentuated. The characteristic feature of this mentality is that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so tellingly terms “naked power” far above all other factors which affect the relations between peoples. The Germans, misled by Bismarck’s successes in particular, underwent just such a transformation of their mentality—in consequence of which they were entirely ruined in less than a hundred years. I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that, independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to others as well. It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts—in short, the psychological factors—are considered as unimportant and secondary. Herein lies a certain resemblance to Marxism, at least insofar as its theoretical side alone is kept in view. The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes “human materiel.” The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises “naked power” as a goal in itself—one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb.”

“Student is not a container you have to fill but a torch you have to light up.”

“Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.”

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.

“Nella vita quotidiana sono il classico solitario, ma la consapevolezza di appartenere alla comunità invisibile di quelli che lottano per la verità, per la bellezza e per la giustizia mi ha risparmiato ogni sensazione di isolamento”