Half the world is composed of people who have something to say 

and can't, 

and the other half who have nothing to say 

and keep on saying it.

All knowledge is precious 

whether or not it serves the slightest human use.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

Being with the mainstream isn't very difficult — 

the tide is powerful, 

and it is easy to let it sweep us along with it. 

But going against the tide is very difficult. 

First of all, one must recognise very exactly what the tide is 

and where it is going.

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

The line between good and evil is permeable 

and almost anyone can be induced to cross it 

when pressured by situational forces.

 

When you run into something interesting, 

drop everything else and study it.

But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy

 — which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever — 

this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

One has only as much morality 

as one has philosophy and poetry.

I see Earth! 

It is so beautiful!

I may climb perhaps to no great heights, 

but I will climb alone.

The promises of this world are, 

for the most part, 

vain phantoms; 

and to confide in one's self, 

and become something of worth and value 

is the best and safest course.

Only you can control your future.

Modern culture is constantly growing more objective. 

Its tissues grow more and more out of impersonal energies, 

and absorb less and less the subjective entirety of the individual.

If you would hit the mark, 

you must aim a little above it.