My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

I had supposed until that time that it was quite common for parents to love their children, but the war persuaded me that it is a rare exception. I had supposed that most people liked money better than almost anything else, but I discovered that they liked destruction even better. I had supposed that intellectuals frequently loved truth, but I found here again that not ten per cent of them prefer truth to popularity.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. If you take your children for a picnic on a doubtful day, they will demand a dogmatic answer as to whether it will be fine or wet, and be disappointed in you when you cannot be sure.

The essence of education is that it is a change effected in the organism to satisfy the operator.

One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.