“The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.”

Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

No one ever gossips about the virtues of others.

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.

So far as I can remember there is not one word in the gospels in praise of intelligence.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

Love is wise, hatred is foolish.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Evidence of trust begets trust, and love is reciprocated by love.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

For it is evident that those who regard the whole earth as their future territory will stress the organ of domestic violence and will rule conquered territory with police methods and personnel rather than with the army.

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.

The way of science is paved with discarded theories that were once declared self-evident.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence that could support this.

A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.

By far the best proof is experience.