In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.

Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.

Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

Error is always more busy than truth.

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. 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 blindfolded fear.

My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

We moralize among ruins.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

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 you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

Ordinary morality is innate in my view.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

It’s really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

Whether if soul did not exist time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything that can be counted, so that evidently there cannot be number; for number is either what has been, or what can be, counted.

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

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Theology is unnecessary.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.

Surely our job while we’re here on Earth is to learn about the world, not to create parallel universes.

Real living is living for others.

Anytime I feel lost, I pull out a map and stare. I stare until I have reminded myself that life is a giant adventure, so much to do, to see.

Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

The age in which we live, this non-stop distraction, is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline… because you need to be alone to find out anything.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life… Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

You just have to have a simple faith.

Time stays, we go.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

Your life will be a blessed and balanced experience if you first honor your identity and priority.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

There’s no one thing that is true. They’re all true.

When it’s your time, it is your time.