Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

Man the individual consoles himself for his passing with the thought of the offspring or the works which he leaves behind.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Time stays, we go.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

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

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

To abandon oneself to principles is really to die – and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

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

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

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

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

My philosophy is, it’s always very rewarding when you can make an audience laugh. I don’t mind making fun of myself. I like self-deprecating comedy. But I’d like you to laugh with me occasionally, too.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

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

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.

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

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

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

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.

I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

I don’t think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.

We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s ‚Pensees‘ and read, ‚I am the great silent spaces between worlds.‘

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

I don’t think that faith, whatever you’re being faithful about, really can be scientifically explained. And I don’t want to explain this whole life business through truth, science. There’s so much mystery. There’s so much awe.

Every man is his own hell.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

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

History should be written as philosophy.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

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.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.