A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?
Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Sin is geographical.
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
Liberty is the right to do what I like; license, the right to do what you like.
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
