I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of WORK, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in the organised diminution of work.

Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.

One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected.

Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.

A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries. A life confined to what is personal is likely, sooner or later, to become unbearably painful; it is only by windows into a larger and less fretful cosmos that the more tragic parts of life become endurable.

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.