“Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.”

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.

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn.

It seems to me fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it’s useful and not because you think it’s true.

The fundamental concept in social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present, very few people have reached this level.

Dogmatism is the greatest of mental obstacles to human happiness.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?

Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.

I had a huge imagination. My granddad says I was a bit of a Walter Mitty character.

My wife asked me once if I weren’t a comedian, what I would do. I couldn’t answer the question. I never imagined doing anything else.

If we treated ourselves as well as we treated our best friend, can you imagine?

Imagine the week ahead unfolding in an ever-increasing flow of miracles. Allow the image to sink into your heart. Receive it with a big yes!

She’s got no charisma of any kind [but] I can imagine her being mildly useful to a low-rank porn director.

Taking back our light from those we’ve projected it onto opens the door to an unimaginable future.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.