If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.

Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.

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

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

There are GMO skeptics more in Europe maybe than in other places, but not exclusively.

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

Back in my days as a chemistry student, I used to be quite a technocrat. I was firmly convinced that scientists would have cornered God and photographed Him in color by 1951.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

‚Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.

Information is not knowledge.

Change alone is unchanging.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

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

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking – it’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.

We’re in the last days, man – I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.

I don’t easily fall for lies, I can see through things.

The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

Trust, but verify.

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

I don’t believe in the after life, although I am bringing a change of underwear.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.