See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

I never experiment with anything in my books. Experimentation means you don’t know what you’re doing.

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

All knowledge or form conception is evoked through the medium of the eye, either in response to disturbances directly received on the retina or to their fainter secondary effects and reverberations. Other sense organs can only call forth feelings which have no reality of existence and of which no conception can be formed.

I am completely fascinated by the differences and comparisons between real life and fairy tales because we’re raised as little girls to think that we’re a princess and that Prince Charming is going to sweep us off our feet.

Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

The very phrase ‚foreign affairs‘ makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.

At ev’ry word a reputation dies.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions.

He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favor of two.

The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

I’m not concerned with people seeing me in a certain way. Some people see me as a kid, some people see me as an adult. But I’m seriously not going to complain how anybody sees me, as long as they see me.

It’s true that obscenity is a matter of taste and in the eye of the beholder.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: ‚Oh, that’s just the way things are done around here.‘ Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.

It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.

People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It’s a story.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.

All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art, because to us it is false and visionary, was, to the makers of it, true and existent.

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the Left – which prevails in our education system from elementary school to postgraduate study – are not likely to get much attention.

I’ve always felt like there was a lot of hype around me even when there wasn’t. I felt like everyone was talking about me even when no one was talking about me.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

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

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts ‚Sign.‘

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It’s commenting or observing or twisting life.

A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view.

Heathenism is a state of mind. You can take it that I’m referring to one who does not see his world. He has no mental light. He destroys almost unwittingly. He cannot feel any Gods presence in his life. He is the 21st century man.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

I sleep people. I put people unconscious. I’m stating facts.

There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.

No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

Even though I had won in other categories, I didn’t have any expectations when I came into F1. Qualifying fifth, finishing sixth? I didn’t expect it.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

Rational discussion is useful only when there is a significant base of shared assumptions.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I’ve always thought it isn’t that different from everybody else’s.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.