Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism.

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.

He wondered what his heart would look like if he could pluck it from his chest and inspect it.

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

Throughout history, religious wars have always been the most brutal and cruel and merciless.

People who say "it is impossible", should not interrupt those who are trying to make it possible.

One of the things you learn when you go overseas is how much a lot of the countries overseas really just like to enjoy life.

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.

Today, it is not only that our kings do not know mathematics, but our philosophers do not know mathematics and - to go a step further - our mathematicians do not know mathematics.

I travel third-class because there is no fouth-class.

Most of us have enough excuses to last a lifetime. The sooner we let go of them and get on with living, the better off we are.