“The old disease, thought Rubashov. Revolutionaries should not think through other people's minds. Or, perhaps they should? Or even ought to? How can one change the world if one identifies oneself with everybody? How else can one change it? He who understands and forgives -- where would he find a motive to act? Where would he not?”

“Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.”

“Politics can be relatively fair in the breathing spaces of history; at its critical turning points there is no other rule possible than the old one, that the end justifies the means.”

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”

“The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.”

“The most persistent sound which reverberates through man's history is the beating of war drums.”

“Wars are not fought for territory but for words. Man's deadliest weapon is language. He is as susceptible to being hypnotized by slogans as he is to infectious diseases. And where there is an epidemic the group-mind takes over.”

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.”