He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. Yet we spend so much time wishing we could skip the fundamentals.

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago. The fatigue of the body translates into a weakness of the spirit, and suddenly all our old demons return to haunt us.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. But the disadvantage is that one also suffers repeatedly from the same misfortunes.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. There is no universal truth that applies to all individuals in all circumstances.

Man is the cruelest animal. At tragedies, bullfights, and crucifixions he has so far felt best on earth; and when he invented hell for himself, behold, that was his very heaven.

The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night. Not that I would ever take my own life, you understand, but there have been times when the thought has given me comfort.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind. But we are not snakes, and we need not die when we change our skin.

I am not upset that you lied to me, I am upset that from now on I cannot believe you. The problem with a liar is not that he cannot tell the truth, but that he cannot believe it. He has become the victim of his own scheme.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. But perhaps you will say that it is not their faith that is wrong, but their madness. Fair enough, but then what do you call the faith of the sane?

The most serious parody I know of is this: you believe you are leading your own life, you are proud of yourself and your so-called achievements, but in reality you are only executing a program that was designed by others.

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

The paradox of faith is this: that the single individual is higher than the universal.

Once you label me you negate me.

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

The greatest problem for the human species, the solution of which nature compels him to seek, is the establishment of a civil constitution administering right universally.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made, nothing entirely straight can be carved.