10 quotes
Time has proved that illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
What I Believe (1930)
Those who are led should not be driven, and they should be allowed to choose their leader.
What I Believe (1930)
I am convinced that degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors.
What I Believe (1930)
My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women.
What I Believe (1930)
My political ideal is democracy. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
What I Believe (1930)
To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.
What I Believe (1930)
Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
What I Believe (1930)
To ponder interminably over the reason for one’s own existence or the meaning of life in general seems to me, from an objective point of view, to be sheer folly.
What I Believe (1930)
The man who enjoys marching in line and file to the strains of music falls below my contempt; he received his great brain by mistake – the spinal cord would have been amply sufficient.
What I Believe (1930)
Heroism at command, this senseless violence, this accursed bombast of patriotism – how intensely I despise them! War is low and despicable, and I had rather be smitten to shreds than participate in such doings.
What I Believe (1930)