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.

Fear is the mother of morality.

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

Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

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

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

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

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

A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.

There are no facts, only interpretations.

Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.

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

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

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

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

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

No man was ever wise by chance.

You cannot step into the same river twice.

A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

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

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness.

May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

Evil is whatever distracts.

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

The truth is lived, not taught.

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

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.

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

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

The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

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.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world, and lost your soul. Was it worth it?

The lack of money is the root of all evil.