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I wish I could understand why so many people have a nearly manic desire to excuse, defend, explain or condone evil.

It is, therefore, essential that we guard our own thinking and not be among those who cry out against prejudices applicable to themselves, while busy spawning intolerances for others.

I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.

Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves.

The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

To be forced to defend oneself is an inherently undesirable position to be in. The focus shifts from ideas to the person conveying them.

Psychologically, it's always more pleasurable to blame others for our problems than it is to acknowledge our own responsibility.

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.