Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

There’s no way to remove the observer – us – from our perceptions of the world.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

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

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

History should be written as philosophy.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

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 sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.

If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow?

I just dress like… I’m an old black man. Sorry! Like I’m an old Jewish black man. I just dress like it’s still the ’50s.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

No man was ever wise by chance.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

Sometimes a nickname is used instead of the real name. But a nickname may offend either the one named or the parents who gave the name.

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

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

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

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

In fact men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

Man’s true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

It’s not morbid to talk about death. Most people don’t worry about death, they worry about a bad death.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

The quantity and quality of consciousness, one may say, have always been growing throughout geological times. In this respect man, in whom nervous organisation and therefore psychological powers have attained an undisputed maximum, may be considered, scientifically, as a natural centre of evolution of the primates.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.