Happiness, like health, is probably also only a passing accident. For a moment or two the organism is irritated so little that it is not conscious of it; for the duration of that moment it is happy. Thus a hog is always happier than a man, and a bacillus is happier than a hog

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.

When I think of anything properly describable as a beautiful idea, it is always in the form of music. I have written and printed probably 10,000,000 words in English but all the same I shall die an inarticulate man, for my best ideas beset me in a language I know only vaguely and speak only as a child.

What the meaning of human life may be I don't know: I incline to suspect that it has none.

Democracy the domination of unreflective and timorous men, moved in vast herds by mob conditions.

In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.

When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.