Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists. H. L.

Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later, for another thing, they die earlier.

Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

Never let your inferiors do you a favor - it will be extremely costly. H. L.

New York: A third-rate Babylon. H. L.

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

No man is worthy of unlimited reliance—his treason, at best, only waits for sufficient temptation.