Modern life cannot be constructed on . . . physically strenuous principles. A great deal of work is sedentary, and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles.

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.

There is a 100% assurance that what your friend’s enemy tells you about your friend is false. What your failure tells you about your passion is fake. Don’t give up!

My need to parent is so much bigger, sometimes, than my children’s need for parenting.

Being human means losing everything we love best in the world," she murmured as she released me. "But would you ask to be anything else?

There is no right to work in a think tank, and these are very privileged positions.

If I told my wife I was going to become a manager she'd say 'sign this then. Don't worry it's only a divorce. Au revoir'.

Xenophanes speaks thus:-And no man knows distinctly anything,And no man ever will.

The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail.

Clients say, 'What's your strategy,' and I say, 'Ask me what I believe first.' That's a far more enduring answer.

Building a company is basically taking all the irrational people you know... Putting them in one building and then living with them 12 hrs a day at least.

I do have a bit of a garden, and I'd love a hovercraft to get around it - one of the big four-seater ones with the fan on the back.