Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, 

the heart of a heartless world, 

and the soul of soulless conditions. 

It is the opium of the people.

Ships that pass in the night, 

and speak each other in passing, 

only a signal shown, 

and a distant voice in the darkness; 

So on the ocean of life, 

we pass and speak one another, 

only a look and a voice, 

then darkness again and a silence.

The sole art 

that suits me 

is that which, 

rising from unrest, 

tends toward serenity.

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, 

let them not be written upon the heart. 

The spirit should never grow old.

The prospect of success 

in achieving our most cherished dream 

is not without its terrors. 

Who is more deprived and alone 

than the man who has achieved his dream?

Try to learn something about everything 

and everything about something.

If the doors of perception were cleansed 

everything would appear to man as it is, 

infinite.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. 

She invites us to lay our eye 

level with her smallest leaf, 

and take an insect view of its plain.

You do not need to leave your room. 

Remain sitting at your table and listen. 

Do not even listen, 

simply wait, 

be quiet, still and solitary. 

The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, 

it has no choice, 

it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

The reading of all good books 

is like a conversation 

with the finest minds 

of past centuries.

Words, 

like nature, 

half reveal 

and half conceal 

the soul within.

Philosophy is like trying to open a safe with a combination lock: 

each little adjustment of the dials
seems to achieve nothing, 

only when everything is in place
does the door open.

Nature is relentless and unchangeable, 

and it is indifferent as to whether 

its hidden reasons and actions 

are understandable to man or not.

To be conscious means not simply to be, 

but to be reported, known, 

to have awareness of one's being 

added to that being.

Life can only be understood backwards; 

but it must be lived forwards.

And now we welcome the new year. 

Full of things that have never been.