I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people.

Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment - a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.

History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind.

Happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering-from positive evil.

The little honesty that exists among authors is discernible in the unconscionable way they misquote from the writings of others.

[T]he moralists of Europe [have] pretended that beasts have no rights... a doctrine revolting/gross/barbarous... on which a native of the Asiatic uplands could not look without righteous horror.

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.