Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.
None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.
What men want is not knowledge but certainty.
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked not be endured with patient resignation.
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
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.
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.
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...
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist since at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
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.
The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.