The man of science is a poor philosopher.

Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by somekind of cosmic lawgiver.

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?

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

Thinking fragments reality – it cuts it up into conceptual bits and pieces.

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Each life makes its own immitation of immortality.

The pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

Which death is preferably to every other? ‚The unexpected‘.

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

I grew up thinking that a research scientist was a natural thing to be.

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

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.

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.

My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

The ideas associated with the problems of the development of science, as far as I can see by looking around me, are not of the kind that everyone appreciates.

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

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

The good is the beautiful.

What was God doing before the divine creation?

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.

As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue but virtue itself.

Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.