Orthodoxy is the grave of intelligence, no matter what orthodoxy it may be.

Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.

The commonest objection to birth control is that it is against nature.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty-a beauty cold and austere ... yet sublimely pure and capable of stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.

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.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

no one ever gossips about the virtues of others