People must feel 

that the natural world 

is important 

and valuable 

and beautiful 

and wonderful 

and an amazement 

and a pleasure.

Most people do not really want freedom, 

because freedom involves responsibility, 

and most people are frightened of responsibility.

The highest and most beautiful things in life 

are not to be heard about, 

nor read about, 

nor seen 

but, 

if one will, 

are to be lived.

 

Where the willingness is great, 

the difficulties cannot be great.

The profoundly 'atomic' character of the universe 

is visible in everyday experience, 

in raindrops and grains of sand, 

in the hosts of the living, 

and the multitude of stars; 

even in the ashes of the dead.

 

The enchanting charms 

of this sublime science 

reveal only to those 

who have the courage 

to go deeply into it.

Death is not an event in life: 

we do not live to experience death. 

If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration 

but timelessness, 

then eternal life belongs to those 

who live in the present.

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment 

in which there is no alloy; 

it lasts when all other pleasures fade.

Thoughts without content are empty, 

intuitions without concepts are blind.

I would sooner have you hate me 

for telling you the truth 

than adore me 

for telling you lies.

Originality is independence, 

not rebellion; 

it is sincerity, 

not antagonism.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

The equation of religion with belief is rather recent.

Habit is a great deadener.

The more we do, 

the more we can do.

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop 

than when we soar.

Science moves with the spirit of an adventure 

characterised both 

by youthful arrogance 

and by the belief 

that the truth, 

once found, 

would be simple 

as well as pretty.

Each of us finds his unique vehicle 

for sharing with others 

his bit of wisdom.

Keep well; 

that is the half of wisdom 

and of happiness.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: 

no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know', 

and thou shalt progress.

The secret of happiness is: 

Find something more important than you are 

and dedicate your life to it.

Follow your bliss 

and the universe will open doors 

where there were only walls.

Psychoanalysts believe that the only 'normal' people 

are those who cause no trouble 

either to themselves 

or anyone else.

Evil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.

Civilisation consists in the multiplication and refinement of human wants.

The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

The past is malleable and flexible, 

changing as our recollection 

interprets and re-explains 

what has happened.

What I have known 

with respect to myself, 

has tended much to lessen 

both my admiration, 

and my contempt, 

of others.

So long as we use a certain language, 

all questions that we can ask 

will have to be formulated in it 

and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe 

which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language.

Authority has every reason to fear the sceptic, 

for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.

Intuition enlightens 

and so links up with pure thought. 

They together become an intelligence 

which is not simply of the brain, 

which does not calculate, 

but feels and thinks.

All living beings, 

not just animals, 

but plants and microorganisms, 

perceive. 

To survive, 

an organic being must perceive — 

it must seek, or at least recognise, food 

and avoid environmental danger.

I believe much trouble would be saved 

if we opened our hearts more.

The cause of justice is the cause of humanity. 

Its advocates should overflow with universal good will. 

We should love this cause, 

for it conduces to the general happiness of mankind.

It is rather fantastic to realise 

that the laws of physics can describe 

how everything was created in a random quantum fluctuation out of nothing, 

and how over the course of 15 billion years, 

matter could organise in such complex ways 

that we have human beings sitting here, talking, 

doing things intentionally.

One of the delights known to age, 

and beyond the grasp of youth, 

is that of Not Going.

Fortunately, 

somewhere between chance and mystery 

lies imagination, 

the only thing that protects our freedom, 

despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it 

or kill it off altogether.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals 

because what they must do 

is the same as 

what they most want to do.

All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.

As to the evil which results from a censorship, 

it is impossible to measure it, 

for it is impossible to tell where it ends.

The rich, 

by unfair combinations, 

contribute frequently 

to prolong a season of distress 

among the poor.

If the misery of the poor be caused 

not by the laws of nature, 

but by our institutions, 

great is our sin.

What I have tried to show is that the scientific attitude implies 

what I call the postulate of objectivity

 — that is to say, the fundamental postulate 

that there is no plan, 

that there is no intention in the universe.

No one is useless in this world 

who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.

We are always the same age inside.

There is no heresy 

or no philosophy 

which is so abhorrent 

to the church 

as a human being.

The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.