Quotes to inspire and reflect

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.

Let us not underestimate the privileges of the mediocre. As one climbs higher, life becomes ever harder; the coldness increases, responsibility increases.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.

What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?

We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another name?

Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.

Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man…

A cult is a religion with no political power.

To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.

Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Where knowledge ends, religion begins.

Religion is not a popular error; it is a great instinctive truth, sensed by the people, expressed by the people.

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.

The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.

To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death.

When superstition goes, religion remains.

Whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing. Taboos after all are only hangovers, the product of diseased minds, you might say, of fearsome people who hadn't the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us.

Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion –- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight.

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

Sceptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

Religion is the last refuge of human savagery.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

A one sentence definition of mythology? "Mythology" is what we call someone else's religion.

In the course of history many more people have died for their drink and their dope than have died for their religion or their country.

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.

I do not believe in revealed religion - I will have nothing to do with your immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without speculating on another.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.