The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

I have an existential map. It has ‚You are here‘ written all over it.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.

If it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

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

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

If you do things, whether it’s acting or music or painting, do it without fear – that’s my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there’s nothing to lose.

Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead.

Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.

To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.

If we do discover a complete theory, it should be in time understandable in broad principle by everyone. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people be able to take part in the discussion of why we and the universe exist.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The first book I ever really read was Plato’s ‚Republic,‘ and then I had to go over that five times or something.

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

Everybody’s got that split between the beautiful and fragile, the hard and the dark.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

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

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

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 thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

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

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

To walk through the ruined cities of Germany is to feel an actual doubt about the continuity of civilization.

To do nothing is also a good remedy.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.

Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.

No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.

Mathematics takes us into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual word, but every possible word, must conform.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ‚But how can it be like that?‘ because you will get ‚down the drain,‘ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.