The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.

I am unable to believe in a God susceptible to prayer. I simply haven't the nerve to imagine a being, a force, a cause which keeps the planets revolving in their orbits, and then suddenly stops in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds.

The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving toward self-sufficiency.

When coming to the end of an interview: 'You must stop this interview now as I have come to end of my personality'.

Don't do housework: after a few years the dirt doesn't get any worse.

It is not the simple statement of facts that ushers in freedom; it is the constant repetition of them that has this liberating effect. Tolerance is the result not of enlightenment, but of boredom.