Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
Every man wherever he goes is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions which move with him like flies on a summer day.
If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody and no unemployment -- assuming a certain very moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the w...
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.
No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
Education is not to be viewed as something like filling a vessel with water but, rather, assisting a flower to grow in its own way
The affection of parents makes infants feel safe in this dangerous world, and gives them boldness in experimentation and in exploration of their environments.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
Mathematics takes us still further from what is human into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual world, but ever possible world, must conform.
When a man tells you he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring he is an inexact man.
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.