Elias Canetti

One should not confuse the craving for life with endorsement of it.

People love as self-recognition what they hate as an accusation.

Success listens only to applause. To all else it is deaf.

Flattery in courtship is the highest insolence, for whilst it pretends to bestow on you more than you deserve, it is watching an opportunity to take from you what you really have.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.