All our science, 

measured against reality,

is primitive and child-like —

and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, 

you know it’s not your path. 

Your own path you make with every step you take. 

That’s why it’s your path.

This is my simple religion. 

There is no need for temples; 

no need for complicated philosophy. 

Our own brain, 

our own heart is our temple; 

the philosophy is kindness.

We make the world significant

by the courage of our questions

and the depth of our answers.

Men fear thought 

as they fear nothing else on earth

 — more than ruin — 

more even than death … 

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, 

destructive and terrible, 

thought is merciless 

to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. 

Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. 

Thought is great and swift and free, 

the light of the world, 

and the chief glory of man.

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, 

for every opinion now accepted 

was once eccentric.

I think that every artist dreams of renewing the forms which came before, 

but I think very few can be considered to have achieved that. 

We are all dwarves standing upon the shoulders of the giants who preceded us, 

and I think we must never forget that. 

After all, even iconoclasts only exist with respect to that which they destroy.

Every man's work, 

whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, 

is always a portrait of himself.

The man who has no inner-life 

is a slave to his surroundings.

In my solitude I have pondered much 

on the incomprehensible subjects 

of space, eternity, life and death.

To kill an error is as good a service as, 

and sometimes even better than, 

the establishing of a new truth or fact.

You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. 

You cannot create experience. 

You must undergo it.