I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.

Let’s pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

To the dumb question, ‚Why me?‘ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, ‚Why not?‘

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Every man is his own hell.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.

One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

To be is to do.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

Nothing can be divided into more parts than it can possibly be constituted of. But matter (i.e. finite) cannot be constituted of infinite parts.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

There is a fundamental question we all have to face. How are we to live our lives; by what principles and moral values will we be guided and inspired?

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.

Only on the edge of the grave can man conclude anything.

Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

That old law about ‚an eye for an eye‘ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.

Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved.

I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.