“The sense of this word among the Greeks affords the noblest definition of it; enthusiasm signifies God in us.”

Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike.

One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.

The more I see of men the more I like dogs.

The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.

Speech happens to not be his language.

Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.

To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent.

That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it.

Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.

Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man’s power is increased.

The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.

A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.

I’ve had a good life, and was born to and among people I’ve admired and loved.

But the self-controlled man, moving among objects, with his senses under restraint, and free from both attraction and repulsion, attains peace.

Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.

Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true.

We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It’s about conflicts between creation stories.