A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.

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.

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

I’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion.

Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it is even becoming mob.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Nothing can come of nothing.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.

By the sole fact of his entering into ‚Thought,‘ man represents something entirely singular and absolutely unique in the field of our experience. On a single planet, there could not be more than one centre of emergence for reflexion.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

To the audience, it’s like I’m changing the subject every five seconds, but to me, my show’s almost like a 90-minute song that I know exactly. I wrote every note, and I know exactly where everything is.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.

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.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Absence and death are the same – only that in death there is no suffering.

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

Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.

I can tell you all kinds of moral tales, but fashion and reality are vaguely different.

‚Thursday‘ is a conceptual album. Whatever that situation was, I spent the whole album focusing on that situation.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

And yet it moves.

I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don’t think so… I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

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

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

‚Discworld‘ is taking something that you know is ridiculous and treating it as if it is serious, to see if something interesting happens when you do so.

The great quest of life has always been to discover truth.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

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.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us.

A man’s character is his guardian divinity.

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.