The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

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.

Simplicity is a key to avoiding complication. Part of the definition of simplicity is ‚not complex or complicated; sincere.‘

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

All I know is that, thanks to a sort of habit which has always been ingrained in me, I have never, at any moment of my life, experienced the least difficulty in addressing myself to God as to a supreme Someone.

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.

They say miracles are past.

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

I always was a Christian… whatsoever a man thinks in his heart is who he is.

I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

Being is the great explainer.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

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

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

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

One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

My success isn’t a result of arrogance – it’s a result of belief.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?

Faith never makes a confession.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

God wants to help us… He loves us… we are His children. But He will not force His help on us at any time. He sees us when we struggle and fight and complain our way through things. And I believe it breaks His heart, when all we have to do is ask Him for help.

I believe in being an innovator.

God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe.

So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

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.

Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

The best and safest method of philosophizing seems to be first to inquire diligently into the properties of things, and establishing those properties by experiments, and then to proceed more slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them.

I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less.

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

Nature is not human hearted.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

Existence precedes and rules essence.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.