I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.
I’ve often said that my rats have taught me much more than I’ve taught them.
In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can’t buy love with gifts or favors, you can’t hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can’t be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider.
Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?
The alphabet was a great invention, which enabled men to store and to learn with little effort what others had learned the hard way-that is, to learn from books rather than from direct, possibly painful, contact with the real world.
It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.
Those who have had anything useful to say have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.
The juvenile delinquent does not feel his disturbed personality. The intelligent man does not feel his intelligence or the introvert his introversion.
Many social practices essential to the welfare of the species involve the control of one person by another, and no one can suppress them who has any concern for human achievements.
A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other.
When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
We admire people to the extent that we cannot explain what they do, and the word ‘admire’ then means ‘marvel at.’
A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.
It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behaviour nevertheless make the most vigorous effort to manipulate minds.
The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to believe in that principle or promises to achieve that state. We don’t want a man, we want a condition of peace and plenty – or, it may be, war and want – but we must vote for a man.
A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he’s often sure he can find one. And that’s a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.
Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.
The world’s a poor standard. any society which is free of hunger and violence looks bright against that background.
Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way- to show that people will be happier if the power is wielded in a different way or for different purposes. But how do they know? Have they ever tried it? No, it’s merely their guess.