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 blind-folded fear.

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.

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

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

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.

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

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Certain though I am – and ever more certain – that I must press on in life as though Christ awaited me at the term of the universe, at the same time I feel no special assurance of the existence of Christ. Believing is not seeing. As much as anyone, I imagine, I walk in the shadows of faith.

I know My God commands, whose power no power resists.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.

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

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

God is everywhere.

The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.

That’s another hallmark of truth, is that it snaps things together. People write to me all the time and say it’s as if things were coming together in my mind. It’s like the Platonic idea that all learning was remembering. You have a nature, and when you feel that nature articulated, it’s it’s like the act of snapping the puzzle pieces together.

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

The lie is a condition of life.

Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

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

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

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

I don’t think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing.

All men are equal before fish.

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

One of the most important concepts of revealed religion is that of a sacred covenant.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

Life is warfare.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.