Perhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

Materialism is incomplete even as a theory of the physical world, since the physical world includes conscious organisms among its most striking occupants.

Life may be not only meaningless but absurd.

What is it like to be a bat? What is it like for a bat to be a bat?

Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.

A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act of the will.

Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.

fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism.

Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.

Every one of our thoughts needs freedom and space in order to bloom and express beauty.

Hate is like acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

Good is that which makes for unity. Evil is that which makes for separateness.

We should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.

Be the kind of person that sees an obstacle as a Mountain, and throws on their hiking gear

I decided to make 'Captain America' because I realized I wasn't doing the film because it terrified me. You can't make decisions based on fear.

I was obsessed with Agatha Christie in sixth grade.

I remember reading The Bluest Eye when I was a young parent, and something opened in me. That's the highest aspiration.