The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.

One is and is not in the centre of the mælstrom of it all.

Going after the unknown 

is always fascinating, I think. 

It becomes part of your life, 

this desire to know.

The home should be the treasure chest of living.

Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.

Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.

Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.

That which is false troubles the heart, 

but truth brings joyous tranquillity.

Truth will rise above falsehood 

as oil above water.

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.

Silence is so accurate.

Act the way you'd like to be 

and soon you'll be the way you act.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.

We are sometimes 

as different from ourselves 

as we are from others.

All experiment is made on a basis of tradition; 

all tradition is the crystallisation of experiment.

I'd rather spend my leisure time
doing what some people call my work 

and I call my fun.

One of the first conditions of happiness is 

that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.

Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail.

The prerequisite of originality 

is the art of forgetting, 

at the proper moment, 

what we know.

To me, 

being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; 

it means taking pleasure in them.

The development of language is part of the development of the personality, 

for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts 

and establishing understanding between people.

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: 

first, our own increase of knowledge; 

secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.

To him who looks upon the world rationally, 

the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. 

The relation is mutual.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books 

than a king without the desire to read.

The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.

All causes are essentially mental, 

and whosoever comes into daily contact 

with a high order of thinking 

must take on some of it.

But far more numerous 

was the herd of such,

 Who think too little, 

and who talk too much.

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

The free soul is rare, 

but you know it when you see it — 

basically because you feel good, 

very good, 

when you are near or with them.

Life is life — 

whether in a cat, or dog or man. 

There is no difference there between a cat or a man. 

The idea of difference is a human conception 

for man's own advantage.

For a solitary animal 

egoism is a virtue that tends to preserve and improve the species: 

in any kind of community 

it becomes a destructive vice.

Logic and mathematics are nothing but specialised linguistic structures.

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

The more we study 

the more we discover our ignorance.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: 

It vexes me to choose another guide.

Beauty is a relation, 

and the apprehension of it 

a comparison.

We participate in a tragedy; 

at a comedy we only look.

One thing that being a scientist has taught me is 

that you can never be certain about anything. 

You never know the truth. 

You can only approach it 

and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. 

You iterate towards the truth. 

You don't know it.

It is necessary to have wished for death 

in order to know how good it is to live.

Books have led some to learning 

and others to madness.

Better make the horizon your goal; 

it will always be ahead of you.

Invention, 

strictly speaking, 

is little more than a new combination of those images 

which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; 

nothing can come of nothing.

In reality, 

both religion and science are expressions of man's uncertainty. 

Perhaps the paradox is that certainty, 

whether it be in science or religion, 

is dangerous.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Our intonations contain our philosophy of life, 

what each of us is constantly telling himself about things.

By the work 

one knows the workman.

Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, 

so that's very important for good health.