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

Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world, and lost your soul. Was it worth it?

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

My theory is 98 percent of all human endeavor is killing time.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

Plato was a bore.

I tend to feel if people say they’re going to do something, they will, if given the chance.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

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

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

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

The racing is quite boring, sometimes. It’s hard to see how it pulls in fans.

The Koran shows every sign of being thrown together by human beings, as do all the other holy books.

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

Politically there were failures. And also on the personal level, there were tremendous failures.

Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

Our life is made by the death of others.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

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

‚Happiness‘ is a pointless goal.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.

Sin is geographical.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

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

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

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

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.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

Humor is the most engaging cowardice.

Time stays, we go.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

No school of philosophy has ever solved this question of whether being determines consciousness or the other way around. It may be a false antithesis.