Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason. Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety.

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.

Naughty children have to be protected. Even if it's just from themselves.

You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.

I would go to the deeps a hundred times a cheer a downcast spirit.

Nature pulls one way and human nature another.

Being on a soccer pitch is not the same as being in a kitchen when things are going wrong.

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

Television represents what happens to a medium when the artists have no power and the businessmen are in full, unquestioned control.

How is it, Lord, that we are cowards in everything save in opposing thee?

I try not to tune in to politics until it's two or three months before the election. Till then, it's like watching preseason football.

If you want a bourgeois existence, you shouldn't be an actor. You're in the wrong profession.