Drunkeness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

An Honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid ... because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.

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 a paradise in a few years.

We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

When you’ve crawled through the darkness, the light is so much more glorious.

Science is all metaphor.

I've never been a blind romantic.

Success doesn't happen overnight. Keep your eye on the prize and don't look back.

American boys should not be seen dying on the nightly news. Wars should be over in three days or less, or before Congress invokes the War Powers Resolution.

We find it hard to believe that other people's thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are.

At least us old men remember what a real bear market is like, and the young men haven't got a clue.

There's probably a bunch of Power Stripe floating through the Def Jam offices right now.

Resource extraction impacts a global environment that is increasingly at severe risk.

We sort of understand how painkillers work. You take one, and it reduces your headache. We don't understand how photographs work. And that, to me, is an essential problem as a practitioner.