On Life and Happiness
1. “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
2. “To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
3. “The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.”
4. “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”
5. “Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly.”
On Knowledge and Philosophy
6. “The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.”
7. “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
8. “Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”
9. “In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
10. “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
On Religion and Belief
11. “Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.”
12. “I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”
13. “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
14. “No one can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God.”
15. “There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.”
On War and Politics
16. “War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”
17. “Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country.”
18. “The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
19. “All movements go too far.”
20. “It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.”
On Education and Thinking
21. “Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.”
22. “Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.”
23. “The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.”
24. “Passive acceptance of the teacher’s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought.”
25. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
