Each piece, or part, of the whole of nature is always merely an approximation to the complete truth, or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet.

To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

All generalizations are false, including this one.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

It is natural to die as to be born.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

The object of the superior man is truth.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

To discover and know has always been a deep tendency of our nature. Can we not recognize it already in caveman?

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

A lie cannot live.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Character is destiny.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

Many admire, few know.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.

Of course it’s the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.

It’s really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

The less you know, the more you believe.

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.