“Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.”

“Our All is at Stake, and the little Conveniences and Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not with Reluctance but with Pleasure.”

“Human history is not the product of the wise direction of human reason, but is shaped by the forces of emotion—our dreams, our pride, our greed, our fears, and our desire for revenge.”

“Our lips are full of praise, but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim. That's why the world is in the shape that it's in.”

“A parable is fascinating/ In its paradoxical invitation/ In the subversion of values/ In the unconditional acceptance of life/In its total affirmation of life/ Without ifs, buts and …”

“The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.”

“Ours, too, should be a declaration of difference and distance—"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created unequal." In the wake of the old world, this will be our proposition.”

“The great desire of this age is for a Doctrine which may serve to condense our knowledge, guide our researches, and shape our lives, so that Conduct may really be the consequence of Belief.”

“Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties.”

“The cinema substitutes for our gaze a world more in harmony with our desires.”