"The quest for philosophy's beginning is idle, for everywhere in all beginnings we find only the crude, the unformed, the empty, and the ugly. What matters in all things is the higher levels."

"The 'highest' states of mind held up before mankind by christianity as of supreme value, are actually forms of convulsive epilepsy."

"Some men are born posthumously."

"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses."

"How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life."

"Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them."

"Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize the infinite extent of our relations."

"War is a continuation of politics by other means."

"Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way."

"The beginning is the most important part of the work."

"WITCH, n. (1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil. (2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, in wickedness a league beyond the devil."

"Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day."