Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live.

Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.

We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. If we merely look to the end of the process, the purpose of life is death

The world will not know liberty until all that is religious and political is transformed into something simple and human and made susceptible to criticism and denial.

If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another -- and always into a better set -- things might be easier, but the trouble is that there is no one to prepare the new rooms. The future is worse than the ocean -- there is nothing there. It will be what men and circumstances make it.

I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement.

We have wasted our spirit in the regions of the abstract and general just as the monks let it wither in the world of prayer and contemplation.