Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

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

The more you know the less you need to say.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

Truth is a pathless land.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

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

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.

Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

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

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe – because, like Spinoza’s God, it won’t love us in return.

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.

From wonder into wonder existence opens.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Nothing in life is promised except death.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

I am a little too absorbed by science to be able to philosophise much; but the more I look into myself, the more I find myself possessed by the conviction that it is only the science of Christ running through all things, that is to say true mystical science, that really matters. I let myself get caught up in the game when I geologise.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

If you can feel that Mother Earth is in you, and you are Mother Earth, then you are not any longer afraid to die because the earth is not dying. Like a wave appears and disappears and appears again.

Judgments, value judgments concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true: they possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms – in themselves such judgments are stupidities.

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is always merely an approximation to the complete truth, or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet.

Heaven is long-enduring, and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves.

Knowledge is true opinion.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

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.

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.