The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.

A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible.

If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped.

A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act of the will.

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

The point is... to live one's life in the full complexity of what one is, which is something much darker, more contradictory, more of a maelstrom of impulses and passions, of cruelty, ecstacy, and madness, than is apparent to the civilized being who glides on the surface and fits smoothly into the world.

Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.