The greatest obstacle to progress is not man’s inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency to parasitism.
The great discovery of the nineteenth century, that we are of one blood with the lower animals, has created new ethical obligations which have not yet penetrated the public conscience. The clerical profession has been lamentably remiss in preaching this obvious duty.
Experience is a good teacher, but her fees are very high.
Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.
Boredom is a certain sign that we are allowing our faculties to rust in idleness.
In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.
Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man.
Hatred toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God.
Admiration for ourselves and our institutions is too often measured by our contempt and dislike for foreigners.
The game of life is worth playing, but the struggle is the prize.
We must cut our coat according to our cloth, and adapt ourselves to changing circumstances.
Faith always contains an element of risk, of venture; and we are impelled to make the venture by the affinity and attraction which we feel in ourselves.
All faith consists essentially in the recognition of a world of spiritual values behind, yet not apart from, the world of natural phenomena.
Let us remember, when we are inclined to be disheartened, that the private soldier is a poor judge of the fortunes of a great battle.
There is no law of progress. Our future is in our own hands, to make or to mar. It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise? Let no one suppose that evolution will ever exempt us from struggles. ‘You forget,’ said the Devil, with a chuckle, ’that I have been evolving too.
For better or worse, man is the tool-using animal, and as such he has become the lord of creation. When he is lord also of himself, he will deserve his self-chosen title homo sapiens.
Religion is caught, not taught.
The object of studying philosophy is to know one’s own mind, not other peoples.
Over-population is a phenomenon connected with the survival of the unfit, and it is a mechanism which has created conditions favourable to the survival of the unfit and the elimination of the fit.
Each generation takes a special pleasure in removing the household gods of its parents from their pedestals, and consigning them to the cupboard.
Consciousness is a phase of mental life which arises in connection with the formation of new habits. When habit is formed, consciousness only interferes to spoil our performance.