“Freedom is not a gift received from the State or leader, but a possession to be won every day by the effort of each and the union of all.”
“The most exhausting effort in my life has been to suppress my own nature in order to make it serve my biggest plans.”
“...we rarely confide in those who are better than we. Rather, we are more inclined to flee their society. Most often, on the other hand, we confess to those who are like us and who share our weaknesses. Hence we don't want to improve ourselves and be bettered, for we should first have to be judged in default. We merely wish to be pitied and encouraged in the course we have chosen. In short, we should like, at the same time, to cease being guilty and yet not to make the effort of cleansing ourselves.”
“A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten; the means are taken for the end.”
“No code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition.”
“You will always win if you make an effort, no matter how much. However, if you failed it means you were too lazy.”
“I was always able to understand my friend who decided to quit smoking and who, through an effort of will, succeeded in doing so. One morning, he opened the newspaper, read that the first H- bomb had exploded, found out about the bomb's admirable effects and went straight to the tobacconist's.”
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