He who can be, and therefore is, another’s, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty, my passion.

And, after all, what is a lie? ‚Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.

Each life makes its own immitation of immortality.

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

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

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Our philosophy is that we care about people first.

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

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.

True Scouts are the best friends of animals, for from living in the woods and wilds, and practising observation and tracking, they get to know more than other people about the ways and habits of birds and animals, and therefore they understand them and are more in sympathy with them.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.

I’m fascinated by the fact that we can’t grasp anything about time.

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

If you think only of evil, then you become pessimistic and hopeless like Freud. But if you think there is no evil, then you’re just one more deluded Pollyanna.

Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.

One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

Nature does nothing in vain.

Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

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.

Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.