The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
-- George Orwell AA

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche AA

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of witnesses.
-- Margaret Millar AA

I find nothing more depressing than optimism.
-- Paul Fussell AA