There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

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

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

I know now that there is no one thing that is true – it is all true.

Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.

Here’s the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don’t find it anywhere else.

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

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.

And, after all, what is a lie? ‚Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

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

By indignities men come to dignities.

The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

I’m an idealist without illusions.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

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

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

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

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

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

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

But if nothing but soul, or in soul mind, is qualified to count, it is impossible for there to be time unless there is soul, but only that of which time is an attribute, i.e. if change can exist without soul.

But your questions, which are unanswerable without exception, all spring from the same erroneous thinking.

How can one preach goodness and love to men without at the same time offering them an interpretation of the World that justifies this goodness and this love?

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

Real living is living for others.