The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness.

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.

Our whole social environment seems to us to be filled with forces which really exist only in our own minds.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it.

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.

I wasn't used to guys making me blush, and I wasn't sure why he even was making me blush.

It is comparatively easy to become a writer; staying a writer, resisting formulaic work, generating ones own creativity - thats a much tougher matter.

There is only a finger's difference between a wise man and a fool.

When art dresses itself in the most worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.

God has given us speech in order that we may say pleasant things to our friends, and tell bitter truths to our enemies.

Some people miss flesh as a drunkard misses his dram.

The more that happens that makes sure liberals and liberalism remain a minority, the better off the world is gonna be and the better off this country is gonna be.

To do the impossible, you need to ignore the popular.

We are very lucky really, because we can create our own reality, John [Lennon] and me, but we know the important thing is to communicate with other people.