Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive read more

Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive believer can be seen to risk the torments of the afterlife for the smallest pleasure.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

It's in the reaction of others that perfection is found in the flawed.

It's in the reaction of others that perfection is found in the flawed.

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.

Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by.

Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by.

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by read more

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by somebody else's rules, while quietly playing by your own.

Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

The cause of freedom is the cause of God.

The cause of freedom is the cause of God.

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.