To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.

I have never understood why it should be considered derogatory to the Creator to suppose that he has a sense of humour.

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

True faith is belief in the reality of absolute values.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.

Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours.

In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.

Consciousness is a phase of mental life which arises in connection with the formation of new habits. When habit is formed, consciousness only interferes to spoil our performance.

I think middle-age is the best time, if we can escape the fatty degeneration of the conscience which often sets in at about fifty.

Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man.

Theater is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theater.

Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.

Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.

Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art.

It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.

There are no rewards or punishments - only consequences.

Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.

Every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.

The enemies of freedom do not argue; they shout and they shoot.

No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.

Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true.

We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.

There are two kinds of fools One says This is old therefore it is good. The other one says This is new therefore it is better.

The happy people are those who are producing something the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.

The world belongs to those who think and act with it who keep a finger on its pulse.

A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased which is more than can be said for human beings.

In imperialism nothing fails like success. If the conqueror oppresses his subjects, they will become fanatical patriots, and sooner or later have their revenge; if he treats them well, and governs them for their good, they will multiply faster than their rulers, till they claim their independence.

The church is only a secular institution in which the half-educated speak to the half-converted.

The vulgar mind always mistakes the exceptional for the important.

When he was twenty-three or twenty-four my father began to learn German and read philosophy in his spare hours, which did not look as though he were destined to remain long on board ship!

I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy.

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.

In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy.

I'm working harder than ever now, and I'm putting on my pants the same as I always have. I just get up every day and try to do a little better than the day before, and that is to run a great restaurant with great food, great wine, and great service. That's my philosophy.

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

I'd like to do policy and I'd like to do philosophy, I'd like to be able to get into the depth, into the meat of the argument - that's the kind of stuff I want to do.

Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.

We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.