The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

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We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.

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The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

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dont let the old break you; let the love make you.

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Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

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When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think.

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Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.

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My first advice (on how not to grow old) would be to choose you ancestors carefully.

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The key to happiness is accepting one unpleasant reality every day.

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No rules, however wise, are a substitute for affection and tact.

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