If we compare Europe with other continents, it is marked out as [another] persecuting continent.

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.

The only sharks I’m afraid of are the ones that wear three-piece suits and write memos.

America has probably been the most successful experiment in history. The American Dream was a glorious attempt. It was built on a religious foundation. Its earliest concepts came from Holy Scripture.

With friends like you - who needs enemas.

Marrying an old bachelor is like buying second-hand furniture.

I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for Humanities conference a year ago. . . .

Clarity is often found in stillness.

But I read Catching Fire. I loved disappearing into a story.

Caring for your inner child has a powerful and surprisingly quick result: Do it and the child heals.

After the age of eighty, all contemporaries are friends.

In countries where there are real civil wars, people go through a lot, and we should be willing to go through a lot to help them.