Measures of sterilization should, in my opinion, be very definitely confined to persons who are mentally defective

This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

The human animal, like others, is adapted to a certain amount of struggle for life [and] the mere absence of effort from his life removes an essential ingredient of happiness. [. . .] He forgets that to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth. I'm not contending in a dogmatic way that there is not a God. What I'm contending is that we don't know that there is. I don't like the word "absolute." I don't think there is anything absolute whatever. The moral law, for example, is always changing. At one period in the development of the human race, almost everybody thought cannibalism was a duty.