Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

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

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.

Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.

Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.