Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

Contention existed before the earth was formed.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

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

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

When I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. So I would go to the club in a polo T-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

Nothing cannot exist forever.

I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you’re wrinkled.

What goes up must come down.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

My style has always been my own, just like my flow and style.

You just have to have a simple faith.

Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.

The frontier between hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things.

The existentialist says at once that man is anguish.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

If you study the writings of the mystics, you will always find things in them that appear to be paradoxes, as in Zen, particularly.

Nature abhors annihilation.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking theres some kind of change.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet.

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.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

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.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

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

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive – that you can touch the miracle of being alive – then that is a kind of enlightenment.

The only thing I know is I ain’t changing my brand. I know what I believe. I’m confident in what I know. And I’m gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don’t like it, I understand.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

No finite point has meaning without an infinite reference point.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

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

The philosophical question before us is, when we make an observation of our track in the past, does the result of our observation become real in the same sense that the final state would be defined if an outside observer were to make the observation?

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.

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

Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.