Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.

That government is best which governs least.

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

Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

You’ll see it when you believe it.

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

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.

It has been discovered that all the world is made of the same atoms, that the stars are of the same stuff as ourselves. It then becomes a question of where our stuff came from. Not just where did life come from, or where did the earth come from, but where did the stuff of life and of the earth come from?

If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

I want to thank God, obviously for the health, for the talent He’s given me, for my family who supports me, for the things that basketball’s taught me on and off the court. For the people that I’ve been able to meet through the game of basketball.

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

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.

So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

I don’t spend that much time being introspective, believe it or not. All I know is that I grew up not questioning God because that’s how you are. God was there like the birds and the wind.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Really I don’t like human nature unless all candied over with art.

If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty.

I’m more of a realist when it comes to life, and I’d much rather my mother be in a spiritual place in Heaven than in a bed, sick, fighting for her life.

My philosophy is, it’s always very rewarding when you can make an audience laugh. I don’t mind making fun of myself. I like self-deprecating comedy. But I’d like you to laugh with me occasionally, too.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.

What goes up must come down.

Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

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

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

I like the fact that Melbourne always seems to support their chefs and promote them in ways I find really admirable.

Relationships are like traffic lights. And I just have this theory that I can only exist in a relationship if it’s a green light.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Where the Mind is biggest, the Heart, the Senses, Magnanimity, Charity, Tolerance, Kindliness, and the rest of them scarcely have room to breathe.

I don’t like to beat people down. They need to be lifted up.

The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates – which group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing.

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

Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experience, but that’s not where I live.

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

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

I believe in the Golden Rule – The Man with the Gold… Rules.

Plato was a bore.

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.