Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.

A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.

One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

Boredom is … a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.