We may often do as we please - but we cannot please as we please.

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.

​Many times your emotional feel-good state or frustrated state is woven into dreams with the use of picture-metaphors.

The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Mother could go for one year without food, but not one day without her lip sticks.

A foundation is a large amount of money completely surrounded by people who want some.

Syria will remain a hotbed of terrorism as long as the civil war, aided and abetted by the Iranians and the Russians, continue.

Stealing has always been a way of redistributing wealth.

Power rises to the top like cream and dominates the weak with cruelty disguised as -- and often even believed to be -- benevolence.

Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions.

I bought some instant water one time but I didn't know what to add to it.

There ought, I thought, to be a ritual for being born twice - patched, retreaded and approved for the road.