Dogma is nothing more than a direct prohibition to think.
Desire is the need for something that does not exist to exist.
There is not only single or individual selfishness, but also social selfishness, a family, corporate, public, patriotic selfishness.
Man realizes the simplest truths too late.
What are the hallmarks of true humanity in man? Reason, will and heart. The perfect man has the power to think, the power to will, and the power to feel. The power of thinking is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of nature, the power of feeling is love.
Existence without needs is a useless existence.
Only the one who loves something has meaning. To be nothing and to love nothing is one and the same.
Love of science is love of truth, therefore honesty is the main virtue of the scientist.
The world is miserable only for a miserable man, the world is empty only for an empty man.
My consciousness is nothing but my "I" putting itself in the place of an offended "You."
In reality, all men are atheists: they deny their faith by their own deeds by their own behavior.
True writers are the conscience of mankind.
The true qualities of man are discovered only when he has to show and prove them in practice.
Our ideal is not an abstract, sterile, immaterial being, our ideal is an integral, truly multifaceted, perfected, educated personality.
Communication ennobles and elevates man; in society, he behaves involuntarily and without pretense, except in solitude.
Obligations to self have meaning and moral value only when they are seen as responsibilities to others - to my family, to my community, to my people, to my homeland.
Principles of life are also principles of morality. Where, because of hunger, poverty, you have no material in your body, there are no principles and no material for morality, neither in your head, nor in your heart, nor in your feelings.
Your first obligation is to be happy. If you are happy, then you will make others happy too. The happy person sees only the happy around him.
The next world is only the echo of this world.
The idea of an essence of perfect morality is a practical idea, requiring action, imitation, and serving as a source of misunderstanding with myself, because it indicates to me what I ought to be, and at the same time, without any bias, shows me that I'm not like that.
The principle of morality is happiness, but not such happiness as is based on one and the same person, but happiness that is distributed among different individuals.
Distinguish between bad, inhuman and merciless selfishness and good, merciful, humane selfishness; distinguish between gentle, forced selfishness, which finds satisfaction in loving others, and self-willed, willful selfishness, which finds satisfaction in indifference or even outright malice toward others.
Religion needs the eternal darkness of ignorance, poverty, technical impotence, lack of culture.
Religion contradicts morality in that it contradicts reason. Kindness is closely related to truth. An altered reason attracts an altered heart. He who deceives his reason cannot have an honest heart.
With us, things are the same with books as with people. Although we know many people, only some of them we choose to be our friends and companions of our intimate life.
Superstition is connected with every religion: superstition, however, is capable of any cruelty and obliteration of any trace of humanity.
Consciousness has its origin in knowledge, or is connected with knowledge, but this does not mean knowledge in general, but a portion or kind of knowledge, namely, that knowledge which relates to our moral conduct and good or bad dispositions and actions.
Consciousness presents things to us differently from what they appear to be; she is a good microscope that magnifies them to make them precise and visible to our feeble feelings. It is the metaphysics of the heart.
Consciousness is the hallmark of a perfect being.
Where there is no distinction between happiness and unhappiness, between joy and sorrow, there is no distinction between good and evil.