Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy, just, and wise.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

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

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

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.

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

I’m always relaxed.

Truths and roses have thorns about them.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we’re atheist. Our existence is beyond our understanding. No one has an answer.

Science is but an image of the truth.

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

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

The unnatural, that too is natural.

If you wished to be loved, love.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.

If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

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

The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.