Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation read more

Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication is the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, "it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.".

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is read more

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an atrocity committed in the twentieth century that was not foreshadowed or even advocated by some noble man of words in the nineteenth.

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and read more

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it.

The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive.

The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive.

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

The several sorts of religion in the world are little more than so many spiritual monopolies.

The several sorts of religion in the world are little more than so many spiritual monopolies.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best read more

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.