There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

I have never sat down and studied the Bible, never consciously echoed its language, and am, in reality, as ignorant of it as most brought-up Christians. All of the Bible that I use in my work is remembered from childhood and is the common property of all who were brought up in English-speaking communities.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

‚I am‘ is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that ‚I do‘ is the longest sentence?

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

In my opinion, rankings are a very fickle measurement of one’s success and it is best to not get carried away by it.

‚Kiss Land‘ is like a horror movie.

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

We’re all caught up in circumstances, and we’re all good and evil. When you’re really hungry, for instance, you’ll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing – well, maybe that’s too strong – but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance.

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

Law is mind without reason.

You know, nothing is more important than education, because nowhere are our stakes higher; our future depends on the quality of education of our children today.

Surely our job while we’re here on Earth is to learn about the world, not to create parallel universes.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

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.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.

They know enough who know how to learn.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

I hated the Naked Chef. Fine, yes, he did good things for school food or whatever, but, you know, I don’t want my chefs to be cute and adorable.

I’m not an expert on the arms race.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

And yet it moves.

Plato was a bore.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

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.

He who can be, and therefore is, another’s, and he who participates in reason enough to apprehend, but not to have, is a slave by nature.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

Knowledge is power.

The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.

When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

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

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

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

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

Truth is a pathless land.