It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; read more

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.

To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.

I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and read more

I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought.

You have to block everything out and be extremely focused and be relaxed and mellow too.

You have to block everything out and be extremely focused and be relaxed and mellow too.

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the read more

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky.

I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors read more

I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first.

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, read more

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.

No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and read more

No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.