SALVADOR DE MADARIAGA Y ROJO

A general must be shot or befriended - but never hurt.

Love has its roots in sex, but its foliage and flowers are in the pure light of spirit.

No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies.

Art is the conveyance of spirit by means of matter.

Circumstances are the seeds of literature.

The Anglo-Saxon conscience does not prevent the Anglo-Saxon from sinning, it merely prevents him from enjoying his sin.

Liberty of thought means liberty to communicate one's thought.

The American language differs from the English in that it seeks the top of expression while English seeks its lowly valleys.

The best pastimes for a true enjoyer of leisure who has to stay at home . . .: reading by the fireside. . . . Listening to music.

On the one hand, it is in and through creative minds that the community fulfils itself at its best and reaches its highest forms; and on the other, it is from them that the community recovers the social substance with which it had nourished them, transfigured by their creative alchemy into a still higher social substance.

No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies.

Art is the conveyance of spirit by means of matter.

My knowledge of myself is direct, synthetic, from within outwards; my knowledge of other persons is indirect, analytical, from outside inwards. My knowledge of myself starts at the core; that of others at the crust.

He is free who knows how to keep in his own hands the power to decide at each step, the course of his life, and who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power.

Liberty of thought means liberty to communicate one's thought.

The Anglo-Saxon conscience does not prevent the Anglo-Saxon from sinning, it merely prevents him from enjoying his sin.

Considering how bad men are, it is wonderful how well they behave.

Inequality is the inevitable consequence of liberty.

The American language differs from the English in that it seeks the top of expression while English seeks its lowly valleys.

A general must be shot or befriended - but never hurt.

Sermons seldom convert sinners; they sometimes goad them into more sin.

Circumstances are the seeds of literature.

Action is the music of our life. Like music, it starts from a pause of leisure, a silence of activity which our initiative attacks; then it develops according to its inner logic, passes its climax, seeks its cadence, ends, and restores silence, leisure again. Action and leisure are thus interdependent; echoing and recalling each other, so that action enlivens leisure with its memories and anticipations, and leisure expands and raises action beyond its mere immediate self and gives it a permanent meaning.

On the one hand, it is in and through creative minds that the community fulfils itself at its best and reaches its highest forms; and on the other, it is from them that the community recovers the social substance with which it had nourished them, transfigured by their creative alchemy into a still higher social substance.

Love has its roots in sex, but its foliage and flowers are in the pure light of spirit.

The best pastimes for a true enjoyer of leisure who has to stay at home . . .: reading by the fireside. . . . Listening to music.