"People do not go to hell after death. The designers and builders of hell are human beings. The designs and buildings are almost completed. It is becoming difficult to add more hell."
- Tamo-san
"I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room."
- Blaise Pascal
"The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something."
- Masanobu Fukuoka
"Civilisation is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
- Mark Twain
"Somebody told me it was frightening how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared."
- Jack Handey
"Incapable of enjoying the moment, the male needs something to look forward to, and money provides him with an eternal, never-ending goal: Just think of what you could do with 80 trillion dollars -- invest it! And in three years time you'd have 300 trillion dollars!!!"
- Valerie Solanas
"The free market means that those without money to buy what they need do not have the right to live."
- John McMurtry
"The seduction of evil is precisely in that it involves us in trying to eliminate it. When your consciousness is open, any action you take in reference to evil has no more significance than digging a ditch to channel floodwaters away from a house."
- Thaddeus Golas
"Giving others the freedom to be stupid is one of the most important and hardest steps to take in spiritual progress. Conveniently the opportunity to take that step is all around us every day."
- Thaddeus Golas
"If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise."
- William Blake
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
"When we come upon assurances that a mystery has been solved, we go on investigating."
- Charles Fort
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away."
- Philip K. Dick
"Appearance versus reality? Appearance is reality, God damn it!"
- Edward Abbey
"There has got to be a God; the world could not have become so fucked up by chance alone."
- Edward Abbey
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
- Leonard Cohen
"The trouble with many religions, accused of wishful thinking, is that they are not wishful enough. They show a deplorable lack of imagination."
- Alan Watts
"The cure for anything is salt water -- sweat, tears, or the sea."
- Isak Dinesen
"All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story."
- Isak Dinesen
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
- (variously attributed)
"Do not even wait."
- Franz Kafka, on how to meditate
"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are."
- Ortega y Gasset
"The other day I... uh, no, that wasn't me."
- Steven Wright
"Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will be troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All."
- Jesus Christ, gospel of Thomas
"You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later."
- Mitch Hedberg
"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."
- Douglas Adams
"Look at the sunset from the sun's point of view."
- Steven Wright