One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

Everybody says that I have a lot of power. But what does that power consist of?... Can I influence governments? I am beginning to be able to..." (1995)

Thinking is human nature and the connection to spiritual dimensions

So strong is the power of superstition that even though we know that we have been reverencing a sham, yet still we hesitate to admit the validity of our new-found convictions.

We must be diligent today. To wait until tomorrow is too late. Death comes unexpectedly. How can we bargain with it?

If a vacuum cleaner salesman rings your front door, he will be selling HIMSELF first. The vacuum cleaner is secondary.

The culture of any country is gauged first by its progress in art.

Men take the oddest satisfaction in feeling superior without knowing that most of the time they are being utterly predictable.

Christlikeness is your eventual destination, but your journey will last a lifetime.

Meditation stills the wandering mind and establishes us forever in a state of peace.

I don't like the idea of being surrounded by hidden things; people you can't see in buildings and cars.