"

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the...more

"

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

"

When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because, as men of science, ...more

"

In all affairs love religion politics or business it's a healthy idea now and then to hang a question mark on things you have long taken for gra...more

"

I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.

"

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

"

The belief that personality is mysterious and irreducible has no scientific warrant, and is accepted chiefly because it is flattering to our human sel...more

"

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

"

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

"

We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.

"

All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to...more

"

Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know

"

Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of ve...more

"

It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are b...more

"

William James describes a man who got the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but w...more