Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

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?

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.

Forever is composed of nows.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.

Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed… It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done; it’s just doing it.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.

All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty – his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

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

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

Many sophisticated, intelligent people lack wisdom and common sense.

We moralize among ruins.

See, that’s why Barack’s running: to end the war in Iraq responsibly – to build an economy that lifts every family, to make sure health care is available for every American – and to make sure that every child in this nation has a world-class education all the way from preschool to college.

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

My background educationally is physics and economics, and I grew up in sort of an engineering environment – my father is an electromechanical engineer. And so there were lots of engineery things around me.

I think we’re doing a dreadful job of educating.

I have wondered about time all my life.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That’s always been the easy way. It’s not that it’s so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it’s just that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.

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

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

Among physicists, I’m respected I hope.

Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

I read Plato’s ‚Republic.‘ I read it through about five times until I could actually understand it.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

I admire Ralph Nader and Denis Kucinich very much, and insofar as they bring up issues and carry out an educational and organisational function – that’s important, and fine, and I support it.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They’re both important and schools are forgetting one of them.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

The object of the superior man is truth.

Real living is living for others.

The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That’s one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living.

Use, do not abuse… neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.