Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

The spirit of an age may be best expressed in the abstract ideal arts, for the spirit itself is abstract and ideal.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

I don’t know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

Existence precedes and rules essence.

Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

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.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

Governments are supposed to lie to their citizens.

If anything, I get most upset because I wanna read a good paper first thing in the morning. And if I see a lie about myself flash across the front of the cover, I don’t think much of the rest of the newspaper.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman.

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment’s grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one’s life.

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.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

Philosophy is common sense with big words.

I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God. And I understand that… we need to be really, really respectful to people who find that ridiculous and… preposterous.

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

I do think there must be some kind of interaction between your living life and the life that goes on from here.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.

Whether or not I like a piece of data has very little bearing on whether or not I am likely to accept it.

So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.

You may be able to read Bernard Shaw’s plays, you may be able to quote Shakespeare or Voltaire or some new philosopher; but if you in yourself are not intelligent, if you are not creative, what is the point of this education?

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.