There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and strong as Death, a mystic contemplation, the “intellectual love of God.” Those who have known it cannot believe in wars any longer, or in any kind of hot struggle. If I could give to others what has come to me in this way, I could make them too feel the futility of fighting. But I do not know how to communicate it: when I speak, they stare, applaud, or smile, but do not understand.

Human life, its growth, its hopes, fears, loves, et cetera, are the result of accidents

Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.

A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

To the primitive mind, everything is either friendly or hostile; but experience has shown that friendliness and hostility are not the conceptions by which the world is to be understood.