“The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned”

“I live, I am partisan. This is why I hate those who do not take sides; I hate those who are indifferent”

“The whole of language is a continuous process of metaphor, and the history of semantics is an aspect of the history of culture; language is at the same time a living thing and a museum of fossils o...”

“The principle must always rule that ideas are not born of other ideas, philosophies of other philosophies; they are a continually renewed expression of real historical development. The unity of his...”

“I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”

“Ideas and opinions are not spontaneously "born" in each individual brain: they have had a centre of formation, or irradiation, of dissemination, of persuasion-a group of men, or a single individual...”

“I have little use for religion as it is practiced, or for astrology, or for belief in witchcraft or omens of good or ill-luck. I think they all stem from some insufficiency in mens minds, perhaps f...”

“It is only the innocent mind which knows what love is, and the innocent mind can live in the world which is not innocent.”

“So if you can look at all things without allowing pleasure to creep in - at a face, a bird, the colour of a sari, the beauty of a sheet of water shimmering in the sun, or anything that gives deligh...”

“Stand firm as surefooted as deer.”

“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”

“I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me.”