Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

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

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

Our life is made by the death of others.

If God dropped acid, would he see people?

Man’s true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

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

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

Infinites, when considered absolutely without any restriction or limitation, are neither equal nor unequal, nor have any certain proportion one to another, and therefore, the principle that all infinites are equal is a precarious one.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.

Fear is the mother of morality.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

Nature abhors annihilation.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.

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

Being is the great explainer.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

The world itself is the will to power – and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power – and nothing else!

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.

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

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

Couples are wholes and not wholes, what agrees disagrees, the concordant is discordant. From all things one and from one all things.

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

The Hindu religions gave me the impression of a vast well into which one plunges in order to grasp the reflection of the sun.

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

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

There are more people dying of malaria than any specific cancer.

Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

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

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

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

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.