Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.

Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

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

My age is very insignificant to me. I don’t think about it, but the world does. The world likes young people in general.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

History should be written as philosophy.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

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.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

Civilization is the making of civil persons.

There has to be a global mission of human progress.

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.

You are a child of the sun, you come from the sun, and that is something true with the Earth also… your relationship with the Earth is so deep, and the Earth is in you and this is something not very difficult, much less difficult then philosophy.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

Man consists of two parts, his mind and his body, only the body has more fun.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

Nothing cannot exist forever.

Real living is living for others.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

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.

The truth is lived, not taught.

Nothing can come of nothing.

I call him free who is led solely by reason.

I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one’s temper and disturb one’s quiet.

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

Words are loaded pistols.

I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.

Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

Life is wasted on the living.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

I think America has always been polarized.

I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.

For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.