Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence
It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.
Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.
The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth more than ruin more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
The method of postulating what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
[T]he infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.
We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
There are two motives for reading a book one, that you enjoy it the other, that you can boast about it.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead.
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. p. 135.
Copyrighted © 2023 — Quotation.io. All rights reserved.
![[T]he infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a deli](https://quotation.io/quotes/infliction-cruelty-good-conscience-delight-188.jpg)
