“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.”

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

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.

One good reason to only maintain a small circle of friends is that three out of four murders are committed by people who know the victim.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

A true partner or friend is one who encourages you to look deep inside yourself for the beauty and love you’ve been seeking.

A friend tells you what you want to hear; a best friend tells you the truth.

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

My friends have made the story of my life.