We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.

The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.

The idea that God is a worthy recipient of our gratitude for the blessings of life but should not be held accountable for the disasters is a transparently disingenuous innovation of the theologians.

Life itself is just a thin coat of paint on the planet, and we hold the paintbrush.

There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them-especially not from yourself.

What you can imagine depends on what you know.

There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism.

There may be things that are completely unknowable to us, so we must be careful not to treat the limits of our knowledge as sure guides to the limit of what there is.

A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being.

There is no polite way to suggest to someone that they have devoted their life to a folly.

Commerce does not have to be a ruthless, brutal enterprise that damages people’s lives. It can be a source of happiness, healing, and hope.

War doesn’t start with an explosion….It bears far more subtlety. A simmer beneath the surface, as if bringing broth to a boil.

Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow - after you have done your best to achieve success today.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it.

Hey, people who travel with their bed pillow. You look insane.

When all is said and done, what is clear is that all lives end before their time.

I make it a policy not to second-guess my instincts. Life's more fun that way. ~Train Heartnet

Any society that does not succeed in tapping into the energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind.

The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out.