Quotes from Salvador de Madariaga

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

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.

The Anglo-Saxon conscience doesn't keep you from doing what you shouldn't; it just keeps you from enjoying it.

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.

Circumstances are the seeds of literature.

The ideal holiday for the truly active man is one doing nothing in beautiful surroundings . . . and the ideal exercise for this best form of leisure is the old, natural, spontaneous movement of the body -- the walk.

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

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

Von der Pressefreiheit hängt praktisch jede andere Freiheit ab.

The arts which need interpretation are the arts of time -- music and poetry -- and not the arts of space -- sculpture and painting.

To-day, in more than half of Europe, man is at the mercy of the police; in 1900 even the most conservative and reactionary Prussian Junker would have been unable to imagine, let alone approve, that a citizen could be arrested and kept in prision at the pleasure of the Government.

The criminal excesses of unlimited capitalistic liberty had soon been checked thanks to the unlimited liberty of the press.

Literature is an art, and the essence of all art is mood.

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

Art is the conveyance of spirit by means of matter.

He is free who knows 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