424 quotes
Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
Unpopular Essays (1950)
The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.
Philosophy for Laymen (1946)
The merits of democracy are negative: it does not insure good government, but it prevents certain evils.
Power: A New Social Analysis (1938)
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.
New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)
All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.
The Scientific Outlook (1931)
It is generally admitted that most grown-up people, however regrettably, will try to have a good time.
Mortals and Others (1931)
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
Love as a relation between men and women was ruined by the desire to make sure of the legitimacy of children.
Marriage and Morals (1929)
Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.
Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Drunkenness, for example, is temporary suicide: the happiness that it brings is merely negative, a momentary cessation of unhappiness.
The Conquest of Happiness (1958)
I have always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel.
Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.
Either Man will abolish war, or war will abolish Man.
Fact and Fiction (1961)
Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.
Authority and the Individual (1949)
The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.
The Problem of China (1922)
A life devoted to science is therefore a happy life, and its happiness is derived from the very best sources that are open to dwellers on this troubled and passionate planet.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918)