“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.”

Civilization is a progress from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity toward a definite, coherent heterogeneity.

In science the important thing is to modify and change one’s ideas as science advances.

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.

We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.

The behavior of men to the lower animals, and their behavior to each other, bear a constant relationship.

Government is essentially immoral.

No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.

Love is life’s end, but never ending. Love is life’s wealth, never spent, but ever spending. Love’s life’s reward, rewarded in rewarding.

People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.

Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.

The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

Marriage: A word which should be pronounced ‘mirage’.

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.

Who indeed, after pulling off the coloured glasses of prejudice and thrusting out of sight his pet projects, can help seeing the folly of these endeavours to protect men against themselves? A sad population of imbeciles would our schemers fill the world with, could their plans last.

An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.

Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

Love is a positive effect. Love can never have a negative effect, only a positive effect.

Enraging liberals is simply one of the more enjoyable side effects of my wisdom.

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations – can never effect a reform.

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.