[They say] "We do not know how this is, but we know that God can do it." You poor fools! read more

[They say] "We do not know how this is, but we know that God can do it." You poor fools! God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

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.

The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look read more

The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look clearly into a future when there will not be many idols left to smash.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only read more

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.

A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it read more

A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves- and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.

The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.

The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.