Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.

Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle.

Mankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else.

It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.

It is not my prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.

At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.