We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.

The gods too are fond of a joke.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Man is not born to atheism. He is born to believe.

In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

You can’t choose up sides on a round world.

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.

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.

In the divine milieu, all the elements of the universe touch each other by that which is most inward and ultimate in them. There they concentrate, little by little, all that is purest and most attractive in them without loss and without danger of subsequent corruption.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.

Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known.

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand.

The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.

Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don’t do that.

Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

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.

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

The big message of gospel is that you don’t have to keep fighting the universe; you can stop, and the universe is quite good to you. There is a loss of ego.

I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man’s intelligence and his comprehension… would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.

There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.

It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.

We have communion with Christ in His thoughts, views, and purposes; for His thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and sanctity. Believers take the same view of matters as Jesus does; that which pleases Him pleases them, and that which grieves His grieves them also.

The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

Men don’t really like skinny, do they?

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

I believe Karl Marx could have subscribed to the Sermon on the Mount.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Why are women… so much more interesting to men than men are to women?

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

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

We inhabit a universe that is characterized by diversity.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.

The great question of our time is, ‚Will we be motivated by materialistic philosophy or by spiritual power?‘

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

What was God doing before the divine creation?

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.