What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth--that the read more

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth--that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, read more

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical read more

A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.

Take your work seriously, but never yourself.

Take your work seriously, but never yourself.

There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without read more

There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.

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.".