Happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no third alternative.

But you can't plead with autumn. No. The midnight wind stalked through the woods, hooted to frighten you, swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves. ("The North")

The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom.

The most agonising thing is to drop doubt into a man about his being a reality, three-dimensional - and not some other kind of reality.

You are afraid of it because it is stronger than you you hate it because you are afraid of it you love it because you cannot subdue it to your will. Only the unsubduable can be loved.

A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.

knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith

If human foolishness had been as carefully nurtured and cultivated as intelligence has been for centuries, perhaps it would have turned into something extremely precious.

You can only love something that refuses to be mastered.

Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers are invariably children.

Let my notes, like the most sensitive seismograph, record the curve of even the most insignificant vibrations of my brain: for it is precisely such vibrations that are sometimes the forewarning of...

The trite objects of human efforts-possessions, superficial success, luxury-have always seemed contemptible to me.

I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.

And I always keep cards people send me. I have a whole wall covered with them.

To be simple is the best thing in the world; to be modest is the next best thing. I am not sure about being quiet.

But with man the case is otherwise, in that when logic leads to any humiliating conclusion, the sole effect is to discredit logic.

One literature differs from another, either before or after it, not so much because of the text as for the manner in which it is read.

One of these nuts is a meal for a man, both meat and drink.

If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi and nonviolence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.

Whatever 'in love' means.