Continuity of life means continual readaptation of the environment to the needs of living organisms.
A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.
For the Absolute, as we now know, all life is individual, but is individual as expressing a meaning.
The modern moralists extol ... the cult of practical activity in defiance of the disinterested life.
Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades.
A heavy or progressive or graduated income tax is necessary for the proper development of Communism.
Each piece of money is a mere coin, or means of circulation, only so long as it actually circulates.
The bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape. Its hierarchy is a hierarchy of knowledge.
You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.
The conspiracy theory of society... comes from abandoning god and then asking: "Who is in his place"
When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
The words of truth are always paradoxical. To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
Good words shall gain you honor in the marketplace, but good deeds shall gain you friends among men.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
Why are the people rebellious? Because the rulers interfere too much. Therefore they are rebellious.
Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.
It is as clear as the sun and as evident as the day that there is no God and that there can be none.
The most serious dangers for American freedom and the American way of life do not come from without.
There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them.
Only the naive inflationist's could believe that government could enrich mankind through fiat money.
The only means to well-being is to increase the quantity of products. This is what business aims at.
Don't for heaven's sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.
Only let's cut out the transcendental twaddle when the whole thing is as plain as a sock on the jaw.
If a false thought is so much as expressed boldly and clearly, a great deal has already been gained.
Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.
Without your knowledge, the eyes and ears of many will see and watch you, as they have done already.
The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.
It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the photograph that it isolates single moments in time.
The scientist rigorously defends his right to be ignorant of almost everything except his specialty.
But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.
He who loves others is always loved by them, and he who respects others is always respected by them.
The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read.
If faith is lost, there is no security and there is no life for him who does not adhere to religion.
Become dust - and they will throw thee in the air; Become stone - and they will throw thee on glass.
Why hast thou made me born in this country, The inhabitant of which is satisfied with being a slave?
Testimony demands to be interpreted because of the dialectic of meaning and event that traverses it.
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.
Ethics seems a morass which we have to cross, but get hopelessly bogged in when we make the attempt.
The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others.
Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.
And we have made of ourselves living cesspools, and driven doctors to invent names for our diseases.
The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
But of the heaven which is above the heavens, what earthly poet ever did or ever will sing worthily?
No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.
Thou shalt likewise know that according to Law, the nature of this universe is in all things a like.
The remark has been made that in the Civil War the North reaped the victory and the South the glory.