Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.

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

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

I have wondered about time all my life.

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

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are – more humane.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.

I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

History should be written as philosophy.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature are shot down wholesale.

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.

The act of dying is one of the acts of life.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

Well, I’ll put it this way: you can certainly say belief in God makes people behave worse. That can be proved beyond a doubt.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

If you would judge, understand.

Men’s ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.

I answer only to God.

The less you know, the more you believe.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

Knowledge is true opinion.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.

You can be committed to Church but not committed to Christ, but you cannot be committed to Christ and not committed to church.

Science is increasingly answering questions that used to be the province of religion.

Each day we understand better what the Indians say, and they us, so that very often we are intelligible to each other.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.

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

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.