In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.

Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved.

Freedom without limits is just a word.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

I happen to believe there is evil in the world.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

We are not the sum of our possessions.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.

The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It’s a battle you can’t hope to win – it’s a battle that’s going to go on forever. It’s part of the human condition.

I have finally decided to write my book on the spiritual life. I mean to put down as simply as possible the sort of ascetical or mystical teaching that I have been living and preaching so long. I call it ‚Le Milieu Divin,‘ but I am being careful to include nothing esoteric and the minimum of explicit philosophy.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‚Where did we come from, what happens next?‘ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future.

We’re all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.

Base souls have no faith in great individuals.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

What was God doing before the divine creation?

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God – but to create him.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

Error is always more busy than truth.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

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

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream?

I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.