The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong. The next most distressing thing is to be proved right.

In the world of ideas everything was clear; in life all was obscure, embroiled.

The fact that people are shocked is the best proof that they need shocking.

If human beings were shown what they're really like, they'd either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

Did you ever feel, as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren't using - you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?

Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.

We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.