Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
That the chance of gain is naturally over-valued, we may learn from the universal success of lotteries.
What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.
To sacrifice the moral to the physical, as is done in these days, is to sacrifice reality for a shadow.
You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
We tend to regard ourselves as puppets of the Past, driven along by something that is always behind us.
...for since there is no real 'way' to sartori, the way you are following makes very little difference.
Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.
Between husband and wife friendship seems to exist by nature, for man is naturally disposed to pairing.
The body is most fully developed from thirty to thirty-five years of age, the mind at about forty-nine.
Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions — what we do — that we are happy or the reverse.
For imagining lies within our power whenever we wish . . . but in forming opinons we are not free . . .
The greatest injustices proceed from those who pursue excess, not by those who are driven by necessity.
No one chooses what does not rest with himself, but only what he thinks can be attained by his own act.
What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.
Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small.
If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.
A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.
If we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, why should we allow it in morals or politics?
Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.
Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.
History is various and sinuous and no essential part of the human spirit is ever wholly absent from it.
Philosophy is altogether less pure now. It's been impurified by science and social science and history.
If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.
Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.
It is obviously possible that what we call waking life may only be an unusual and persistent nightmare.
If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.
Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.
For in every ill-turn of fortune the most unhappy sort of unfortunate man is the one who has been happy
If one extends knowledge to the utmost, one will have wisdom. Having wisdom, one can then make choices.
Living virtuously is equal to living in accordance with one's experience of the actual course of nature
Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.
Clever talk can confound the workings of virtue, just as small impatiences can confound great projects.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.
Try to just be true to ourselves, whoever we are, but willing to grow, even as we're true to ourselves.
Martin Luther King was a victim of surveillance, and had great solidarity with victims of surveillance.
There's no polite way to say to somebody (religious followers) 'Do you realize you've wasted your life?
The main obstacle to our development is our lack of knowledge about the nature of consciousness itself.
Poets themselves, tho' liars by profession, always endeavour to give an air of truth to their fictions.
Fine writing, according to Mr. Addison, consists of sentiments which are natural without being obvious.
To Xeniades, who had purchased Diogenes at the slave market, he said, "Come, see that you obey orders."
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
If pessimism is despair, optimism is cowardice and stupidity. Is there any need to choose between them?
Daydream transports the dreamer outside the immediate world to a world that bears the mark of infinity.
The beauty of a face is not a separate quality but a relation or proportion of qualities to each other.
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.