Escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings.

The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.

I suppose the advocates of unreason think that there is a better chance of profitably deceiving the populace if they keep it in a state of effervescence.

There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.

I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.

Ants and savages put strangers to death.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.