"Reflections on War and Death" by Sigmund Freud

Kindle edition here.

• "Caught in the whirlwind of these war times"
• "It would seem as though no event had ever destroyed so much of the precious heritage of mankind, confused so many of the clearest intellects or so thoroughly debased what is highest."
• "Even science has lost her dispassionate impartiality. Her deeply embittered votaries are intent upon seizing her weapons to do their share in the battle against the enemy."
• "The anthropologist has to declare his opponent inferior and degenerate, the psychiatrist must diagnose him as mentally deranged."
• "One need not be a sentimentalist, one may realize the biological and physiological necessity of suffering in the economy of human life, and yet one may condemn the methods and the aims of war and long for its termination."

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" by Oscar Wilde

Kindle edition here.

• "The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man’s intelligence"
• "Most personalities have been obliged to be rebels.  Half their strength has been wasted in friction."
• "The note of the perfect personality is not rebellion, but peace."
• "it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought"
• "their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it.  Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease."

"The House of Pomegranates" by Oscar Wilde

• "The burden of this world is too great for one man to bear, and the world’s sorrow too heavy for one heart to suffer"
• "strange passion for beauty that was destined to have so great an influence over his life"
• "the secrets of art are best learned in secret, and ... Beauty, like Wisdom, loves the lonely worshiper."
• "Far away, in an orchard, a nightingale was singing.  A faint perfume of jasmine came through the open window. "
• "Never before had he felt so keenly, or with such exquisite joy, the magic and the mystery of beautiful things."

"The Antichrist" by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

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• "In brief, what he saw in Christian ethics, under all the poetry and all the fine show of altruism and all the theoretical benefits therein, was a democratic effort to curb the egoism of the strong—a conspiracy of the chandala against the free functioning of their superiors, nay, against the free progress of mankind."
• "Well, an idea is an idea. The present one may be right and it may be wrong. One thing is quite certain: that no progress will be made against it by denouncing it as merely immoral."
• "But in any battle between an institution and an idea, the idea, in the long run, has the better of it."
• "The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances—of complex and irrational phenomena, defectively grasped."

"Anthem" by Ayn Rand

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• "It is a fearful word, alone."
• "Nothing matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work."
• "all men are one and that there is no will save the will of all men together"
• "This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick."
• "The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them."
• "So much is still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if we must travel it alone!"

"All Things Considered" by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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• "I cannot understand the people who take literature seriously; but I can love them, and I do. Out of my love I warn them to keep clear of this book."
• "It is so easy to be solemn; it is so hard to be frivolous."
• "It is more dignified to sit still than to dance the Barn Dance."
• "That is why so many tired, elderly, and wealthy men go in for politics. They are responsible, because they have not the strength of mind left to be irresponsible."
• "One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time."
• "In these essays (as I read them over) I feel frightfully annoyed with myself for not getting to the point more quickly; but I had not enough leisure to be quick."

"The Future of an Illusion" by Sigmund Freud

The Future of an Illusion (by Sigmund Freud) - the Kindle edition.

•  "The one person this publication may injure is myself."

•  "It is possible that cultural development lie ahead of us in which the satisfaction of yet other wishes, which are entirely permissible today, will appear just as unacceptable as cannibalism is today." 

• "It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves prospect of a lasting experience." 

• "scientific work is the only road which can lead us to a knowledge of reality outside ourselves. It is once again merely an illusion to expect anything from intuition and introspection; they can give us nothing but particulars about our own mental life, which are hard to interpret 

• "Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brainworkers."

• "But surely infantilism is destined to be surmounted. Men cannot remain children for ever; they must in the end go out into the 'hostile life'. We may call this 'education to reality'."

• "The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest till it has gained a hearing." 

• "in the long run nothing can withstand reason and experience" 

• "No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere."

"On the Decay of the Art of Lying" by Mark Twain

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• "The Lie, as a Virtue, A Principle, is eternal; the Lie, as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man's best and surest friend, is immortal, and cannot perish from the earth while this club remains. My complaint simply concerns the decay of the art of lying."
• "No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our circumstances--the deduction that it is then a Virtue goes without saying. No virtue can reach its highest usefulness without careful and diligent cultivation--therefore, it goes without saying that this one ought to be taught in the public schools--even in the newspapers. What chance has the ignorant uncultivated liar against the educated expert?"
• "None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us has to."