Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.

Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

Some people are very good at being ‚stars‘ and it suits them. I’m grudging about it and I find it annoying.

I am a little too absorbed by science to be able to philosophise much; but the more I look into myself, the more I find myself possessed by the conviction that it is only the science of Christ running through all things, that is to say true mystical science, that really matters. I let myself get caught up in the game when I geologise.

God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Life is warfare.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

I don’t believe in death, neither in flesh nor in spirit.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

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.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

Blushing is the color of virtue.

I like the idea of putting your Christmas wish list up and letting people share it.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

For a dinner date, I eat light all day to save room, then I go all in: I choose this meal and this order, and I choose you, the person across from me, to share it with. There’s a beautiful intimacy in a meal like that.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

Wisdom is found only in truth.

You just have to have a simple faith.

Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

It’s impossible, I think, however much I’d become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don’t think I’d ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

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

In Hollywood a girl’s virtue is much less important than her hairdo.

Better to have beasts that let themselves be killed than men who run away.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

Non-violence is the article of faith.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

There is something about building up a comradeship – that I still believe is the greatest of all feats – and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.