Society and the World

The spirit of a people, its cultural level, its social structure, the deeds its policy may prepare—all this and more is written in its fiscal history, stripped of all phrases. He who knows how to listen to its message here discerns the thunder of world history more clearly than anywhere else.

Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.

Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht .

Man cannot will unless he has first understood that he can count on nothing but himself: that he is alone, left alone on earth in the middle of his infinite responsibilities, with neither help nor succor, with no other goal but the one he will set for himself, with no other destiny but the one he will forge on this earth.

The most ominous conflict of our time is the difference of opinion, of outlook, between men of letters, historians, philosophers, the so-called humanists, on the one side and scientists on the other. The gap cannot but increase because of the intolerance of both and the fact that science is growing by leaps and bounds.

The most ominous conflict of our time is the difference of opinion, of outlook, between men of letters, historians, philosophers, the so-called humanists, on the one side and scientists on the other. The gap cannot but increase because of the intolerance of both and the fact that science is growing by leaps and bounds.

If you give to a thief he cannot steal from you, and then he is no longer a thief.

There is no God and Mary is His Mother.

It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.

It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.

I like to walk about amidst the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.

I like to walk about amidst the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty.

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Each religion, so dear to those whose life it sanctifies, and fulfilling so necessary a function in the society that has adopted it, necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

Art for art’s sake is an empty phrase. Art for the sake of the true, art for the sake of the good and the beautiful, that is the faith I am searching for.

Faith is an excitement and an enthusiasm, a state of intellectual magnificence which we must safeguard like a treasure, not squander on our way through life in the small coin of empty words and inexact, pedantic arguments.

[ Of Rome :] A venal city ripe to perish, if a buyer can be found.

Freedom of thought is the only guarantee of the feasibility of a scientific democratic approach to politics, economy, and culture.