We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

The existentialist says at once that man is anguish.

I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty, my passion.

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th‘ observer’s sake.

The book, ’12 Rules For Life,‘ is a very serious book. There’s elements of humor in it, but I’m trying to struggle with things at the deepest possible level and to explain to people why it’s necessary to live a upstanding and noble and moral and truthful and responsible life, and why there’s hell to pay if you don’t do that.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

It’s easy to forget who you are.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice… No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

God is cruel. Sometimes he makes you live.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor.

Nature abhors annihilation.

All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.

All things in the world come from being. And being comes from non-being.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

I don’t think I get that upset over things.

Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

Mastery passes often for egotism.

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

What is the Tao Te Ching? Five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a God-realized being named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of existence.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

If you ask people what they’ve always wanted to do, most people haven’t done it. That breaks my heart.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

There is a group of people that I think in good faith honestly believe that further curtailing our Second Amendment rights will enhance public safety. But there’s another group that just hates the Second Amendment.

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

My mother always used to say, ‚Well, if you had been born a little girl growing up in Egypt, you would go to church or go to worship Allah, but surely if those people are worshipping a God, it must be the same God‘ – that’s what she always said. The same God with different names.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

I’m opposed to fundamentalism in any form.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

There’s a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.

Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.

This above all; to thine own self be true.

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.