The few who profit from the labor of the masses want to organize the workers into an army which will protect the interests of the capitalists.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.

Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first!

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

I do not like the world as it is; so I am trying to make it a little more as I want it.

If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.