“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.”

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

Ignore death up to the last moment; then, when it can’t be ignored any longer, have yourself squirted full of morphia and shuffle off in a coma. Thoroughly sensible, humane and scientific, eh?

Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.

Round pegs in square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and tend to infect others with their discontents.

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.

There seems to be no good reason why a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown.

The survival of democracy depends on the ability of large numbers of people to make realistic choices in the light of adequate information.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

No social stability without individual stability.

At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge?

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

Beware of being too rational. In the country of the insane, the integrated man doesn’t become king. He gets lynched.

All that is needed is money and a candidate who can be coached to look sincere. Political principles and plans for specific action have come to lose most of their importance. The personality of the candidate, the way he is projected by the advertising experts, are the things that really matter.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare, it is simply disgraceful.

You can be heartbroken about a relationship but also, from it, realize you are you, and you’re okay with who you are or where you came from.

I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself.

Britain is the ideas factory of the world and has huge potential to benefit from the next technological revolution.

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.

From Calcutta has gone forth a living stream of knowledge in many branches of study. It is inspiring to think of the long succession of scholars, both Indian and European, who have lived in this city, made it their own, and given it of their best.

It is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it.

Make a decision that from now on, your thoughts do not run you, you run your thoughts. From now on, your mind is not the captain of your ship, you are the captain of the ship, and your mind works for you.

From nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations