All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‚a quiet conscience makes one strong!‘

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.

God cannot be realized through the intellect. Intellect can lead one to a certain extent and no further. It is a matter of faith and experience derived from that faith.

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

Within the soul of America is freedom of mind and spirit in man. Here alone are the open windows through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‚Truth is the daughter of Time.‘

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.

The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.

The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view.

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

I have discovered that my interest in my dear pupil, Mabel, has ripened into a far deeper feeling than that of mere friendship. In fact, I know that I have learned to love her very sincerely.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

We’re not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

They are resilient children, but they are children, and as much as they need help to understand the hard truths in life, they also need what we all need – protection and love.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom… in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.