What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?

The difference between theism and nontheism is not whether one does or does not believe in God. . . Theism is a deep-seated conviction that there's some hand to hold: if we just do the right things, someone will appreciate us and take care of us. . . Nontheism is relaxing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of the present moment without reaching for anything to protect ourselves.

She would have liked not to be alive, or to be always asleep.

Secrecy is thus, so to speak, a transition stadium between being and not-being.

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.