There is a strong empirical reason why we should cultivate thoughts that can never be proved. It is that they are useful.

He can stand the most incredible hardships when he is convinced that they make sense; he is crushed when, on top of all his misfortunes, he has to admit that he is taking part in a "tale told by an idiot."

It is the role of religious symbols to give a meaning to the life of man. this belief endows their life with a perspective and a goal that goes far beyond their limited existence.

Their plight is infinitely more satisfactory than that of a man in our own civilization who knows that he is and will remain nothing more than an underdog with no inner meaning to his life.