Quotes

For the man who thinks for himself becomes acquainted with the authorities for his opinions only after he has acquired them and merely as confirmation of them, while the book philosopher starts with his authorities, in that he constructs his opinions by collecting together the opinions of others: his mind then compares with that of the former as an automon compares with a living man

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very, very edge of despair. I have sought love first because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours of that joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieved loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined, This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found. Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me

I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem

Any PC built after 1985 has the storage capacity to house an evil spirit

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between

All of God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable

Think of how stupid the average person is. Now realize that by definition HALF of the population is even STUPIDER

Either that wallpaper has to go, or I shall

Love is the triumph of imagination over the intelligence

Sex without love is an empty experience, but, as empty experiences go, it's one of the best

I may have thought the road to a world of free and happy human beings shorter then it is proving to be, but I was not wrong in thinking that such a world is possible, and that it is worth while to live with a view to bringing it nearer. I have lived in pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom to more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken

There are only four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made of? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away...Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfilment

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on

Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence