The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Boredom is essentially a thwarted desire for events, not necessarily pleasant ones, but just occurrences such as will enable the victim of ennui to know one day from another. The opposite of boredom,...
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.
It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to ad...
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
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.
It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.
Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
Fear is the main source of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty.
Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative a momentary cessation of unhappiness.
The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.
It is preoccupation with possession more than anything else that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
What hunger is in relation to food zest is in relation to life.
...what is the use of making everybody rich if the rich themselves are miserable?
From the standpoint of the upper classes, the system had many merits. They felt that what was paid out of the poor rate was charity, and therefore a proof of their benevolence; at the same time, wages...