Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth.

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.

The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.

Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.

Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

I’ve made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant, I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I’m convinced of the opposite.

One must care about a world one will not see.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

We love our habits more than our income, often more than our life.

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.

The use of self control is like the use of brakes on train. It is useful when you find yourself in wrong direction but merely harmful when the direction is right

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.

It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.

The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.

I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

Conquer the world by intelligence, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.

Mathematics rightly viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty.

It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons

I consider the official Catholic attitude on divorce, birth control, and censorship exceedingly dangerous to mankind.

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.

One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.

Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.

To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

Love can flourish only as long as it is free and spontaneous; it tends to be killed by the thought of duty. To say that it is your duty to love so-and-so is the surest way to cause you to hate him of her.

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.

Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.