Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours.

If the universe is running down like a clock, the clock must have been wound up at a date which we could name if we knew it. The world, if it is to have an end in time, must have had a beginning in time.

Even the paradise of fools is not an unpleasant abode while it is inhabitable.

Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.

We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.

The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other peoples.