Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.

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.

All through the night, men looked at the sky and were saddened by the stars.

How fragile we are under the sheltering sky. Behind the sheltering sky is a vast dark universe, and we're just so small.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

If I was tall and blonde, I might have been a dancer or singer.

Good fortune can take forever to get to you, but as it turns out, sorrow is as quick as a shot.

This is a limiting factor in the way we have been able to help, ... We need to determine to what extent does an 'emergency declaration' go.

Main Street is almost alright.

But the less a man knows about the past and the present the more insecure must prove to be his judgment of the future.

The atrocious crime of being a young man . . . I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny.