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I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. - Author object (559)

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years. - Author object (559)

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. - Author object (559)

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex. - Author object (559)

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness. - Author object (559)

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. - Author object (559)

The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible. - Author object (559)

When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; 'will I be able to talk with this person into old age?' Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation. - Author object (559)

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know - Author object (559)

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. - Author object (559)

The secret of happiness is this: let your interest be as wide as possible and let your reactions to the things and persons who interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. - Author object (559)

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. - Author object (559)

If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm. - Author object (559)

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. - Author object (559)

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. - Author object (559)

I say people who feel they must have a faith or religion in order to face life are showing a kind of cowardice, which in any other sphere would be considered contemptible. But when it is in the religious sphere it is thought admirable, and I cannot admire cowardice whatever sphere it is in. - Author object (559)

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. - Author object (559)

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. - Author object (559)

Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attibutable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century. - Author object (559)

Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country. - Author object (559)