“The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.”

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error.

Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts that could not exist without it.

The secret of happiness is very simple: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

One must care about a world one will not see.

To write a tragedy, a man must feel the tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.

The demand for certainty is one that is natural to man but is nevertheless an intellectual vice.

The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.

I hate being all tidy like a book in a library where nobody reads – prison is horribly like that.

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.

I consider the official Catholic attitude on divorce, birth control, and censorship exceedingly dangerous to mankind.

Even if all the experts agree, they may well be mistaken.

feel as though the camera is almost a kind of voyeur in Mr. Bean’s life, and you just watch this bizarre man going about his life in the way that he wants to.

I don’t know a lot about politics, but I can recognise a good party man when I see one.

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

You’re about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest.

It’s a funny thing that when a man hasn’t anything on earth to worry about, he goes off and gets married.

I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored

The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.