And all these people lived not by reason of any care they had for themselves, but by the love for them that was in other people.

Her face was brilliant and glowing; but this glow was not one of brightness; it suggested the fearful glow of a conflagration in the midst of a dark night.

What is bad? What is good? What should one love, what hate? Why live, and what am I? What is lie,what is death? What power rules over everything?" he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions except one, which was not logical and was not at all an answer to these questions. This answer was: "You will die--and everything will end. You will die and learn everything--or stop asking.

The ideas of the wise have been tested by centuries. Everything medium is lost and only original, deep and useful things are left.

The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me? It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person to exist without a religion than without a heart.

The appreciation of the merits of art (of the emotions it conveys) depends upon an understanding of the meaning of life...

Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory