Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.

For ideas to prevail, 

many of their defenders have to die in obscurity. 

Their anonymous influence makes itself felt.

It is through science that we prove, 

but through intuition that we discover.

Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.

Life is so unlike theory.

A writer should have 

the precision of a poet 

and the imagination of a scientist.

If I could 

I would always work 

in silence and obscurity, 

and let my efforts be known 

by their results.

Sincerity is not only effective and honourable, 

it is also much less difficult than is commonly supposed.

Of the things which nourish the imagination, 

humour is one of the most needful, 

and it is dangerous to limit or destroy it.

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life 

that the most likely way
to reach a goal 

is to be aiming 

not at that goal itself 

but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

If poetry and the arts do anything, 

they can fortify your inner life, 

your inwardness.

Books let us into their souls 

and lay open to us 

the secrets of our own.

There are moments of existence 

when time and space are more profound, 

and the awareness of existence 

is immensely heightened.

If you think you're free, 

there's no escape possible.

Science is the knowledge of consequences, 

and dependence of one fact upon another.

Where words fail, 

music speaks.

When it is not in our power to follow what is true, 

we ought to follow what is most probable.

Only when we realise 

that there is no eternal, unchanging truth 

or absolute truth 

can we arouse in ourselves 

a sense of intellectual responsibility.

Do you not see 

with your own eyes 

the chrysalis fact 

assume 

by degrees 

the wings of fiction?

Great literature should do some good to the reader: 

must quicken his perception though dull, 

and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, 

and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads 

where time and place and eternity somehow meet. 

His problem is to find that location.

Fullness of knowledge always means 

some understanding 

of the depths of our ignorance; 

and that is always conducive 

to humility and reverence.

A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.

A healthful hunger for a great idea 

is the beauty and blessedness of life.

When everything is easy 

one quickly gets stupid.

I have no special talent. 

I am only passionately curious.

See first, think later, then test. 

But always see first. 

Otherwise, you will only see 

what you were expecting. 

Most scientists forget that.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, 

of the infinitely abundant chaos.

Everything is expressed through relationship. 

Colour can exist only through other colours, 

dimension through other dimensions, 

position through other positions that oppose them. 

That is why I regard relationship as the principal thing.

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven 

unless it be through Earth's loveliness.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, 

is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, 

it's a way of looking at life 

through the wrong end of a telescope, 

and that enables you 

to laugh at life's realities.

The human voice is the organ of the soul.

Readers are plentiful: 

thinkers are rare.

Rule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency 

are not more important than 

right, justice and plain common-sense.

All that we are not 

stares back 

at what we are.

For I am not so enamoured of my own opinions 

that I disregard what others may think of them.

Speech is human nature itself, 

with none of the artificiality of written language.

In questions of science, 

the authority 

of a thousand 

is not worth

 the humble reasoning 

of a single individual.

Each pursues his own theory, 

little solicitous to correct or improve it 

by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents.

A scientist's aim 

in a discussion with his colleagues 

is not to persuade, 

but to clarify.

One of the great problems of philosophy 

is the relationship between 

the realm of knowledge and the realm of values. 

Knowledge is what is; 

values are what ought to be.

We forge the chains we wear in life.

The best live among us in disguise.

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; 

it is the part the schools cannot recognise.

I try to decorate my imagination as much as I can.

The World is my country, 

all mankind are my brethren, 

and to do good is my religion.

It is quite an illusion to imagine 

that one adjusts to reality 

essentially without the use of language 

and that language is merely an incidental means 

of solving specific problems of communication or reflection.

No, 

I'm no enemy to learning; 

it hurts not me.

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.