Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery, and in such a world hopes could only be irrational.

Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale

Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that is happiness.

The dictum that human nature cannot be changed is one of those tiresome platitudes that conceal from the ignorant the depths of their own ignorance.

A man is rational in proportion as his intelligence informs and controls his desires.

Joy of life... depends upon a certain spontaneity in regard to sex. Where sex is repressed, only work remains, and a gospel of work for work's sake never produced any work worth doing.

The puritanism of Christianity has played havoc with the moderation that an enlightened and tolerant critical spirit would have produced. I've noticed that in whatever country, county, town, or other region there is a regulation enjoining temperance, the population seems to be entirely composed of teetotallers and drunkards. There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.