Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand,...
I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
No matter how eloquently a dog may bark he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.
One must care about a world one will not see.
A child develops best when, like a young plant, he is left undisturbed in the same soil. Too much travel, too much variety of impressions, are not good for the young, and cause them as they grow up to...
Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
When I was young, most teachers of philosophy in British and American universities were Hegelians, so that, until I read Hegel, I supposed there must be some truth to his system; I was cured, however,...
Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness it is a sign of emotional failure.
Beggars do not envy millionaires though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.
Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.
Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.
Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.
All movements go too far.
To teach how to live with uncertainty and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.