Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.

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.

Maybe there's a way to keep us in this moment. Not the sad part. But the coming together part.

I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.

The most reasonable man always manages, when he pulls the trigger, to become a dispenser of justice.

One of the odd things about being a writer is that you never reach a point of certainty, a point of mastery where you can say, Right. Now I understand how this is done.

No nation as young as America can be expected to become immediately a power in the arts.

How tedious is a guilty conscience!

I ought to rejoice in the fact that our principal rival has died, but I don't.

You can't love your team without hating another team.

Over the last 10 years, women have stalled out at the top.

Sometimes too much tolerance can kill you. If you are tolerant of people poisoning themselves to death they will drag you down. They will ruin your life by being intentional obstacles to your dreams.