What we achieve inwardly 

will change outer reality.

Death does not concern us, 

because as long as we exist, 

death is not here. 

And when it does come, 

we no longer exist.

The key to growth is the introduction 

of higher dimensions of consciousness 

into our awareness.

Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, 

moving at different speeds. 

A sense of humour is just common sense, 

dancing.

Human life 

is as evanescent 

as the morning dew 

or a flash of lightning.

You took my dreams from me

When I first found you

I kept them with me babe

I put them with my own

Can't make it all alone

I've built my dreams around you

We are driven by the usual insatiable curiosity of the scientist, 

and our work is a delightful game.

The things that we love 

tell us what we are.

I love to doubt 

as well as know.

Scientific views end in awe and mystery, 

lost at the edge in uncertainty, 

but they appear to be so deep and so impressive 

that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage 

for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil 

seems inadequate.

The superior man acquaints himself
with many sayings of antiquity 

and many deeds of the past, 

in order to strengthen his character thereby.

We are born at a given moment, 

in a given place 

and, like vintage years of wine, 

we have the qualities 

of the year 

and of the season 

of which we are born.

The future enters into us, 

in order to transform itself in us, 

long before it happens.

This preservation of favourable variations 

and the rejection of injurious variations, 

I call Natural Selection. 

Variations neither useful nor injurious 

would not be affected by natural selection, 

and would be left a fluctuating element…

Why are there beings at all, 

instead of Nothing?

I should premise 

that I use the term Struggle for Existence 

in a large and metaphorical sense, 

including dependence of one being on another, 

and including (which is more important) 

not only the life of the individual, 

but success in leaving progeny.

If you would be loved, 

love, 

and be loveable.

We must, 

however, 

acknowledge, 

as it seems to me, 

that man 

with all his noble qualities... 

still bears 

in his bodily frame 

the indelible stamp 

of his lowly origin.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, 

in a sense, 

absolute philosophies; 

one is certain of knowing, 

the other of not knowing. 

What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, 

whether of knowledge or ignorance.

Life is not a problem to be solved, 

but a reality to be experienced.

The wise man regulates his conduct 

by the theories both of religion and science. 

But he regards these theories 

not as statements of ultimate fact 

but as art-forms.

Mankind is not a circle with a single centre 

but an ellipse with two focal points 

of which facts are one 

and ideas the other.

You are not a human being 

in search of a spiritual experience. 

You are a spiritual being 

immersed in a human experience.

There are three classes of people: 

those who see, 

those who see when they are shown, 

those who do not see.

I cannot give
any scientist of any age
better advice than this: 

the intensity of a conviction
that a hypothesis is true 

has no bearing
over whether it is true or not.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, 

but talent instantly recognises genius.

The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.

The soul becomes dyed 

with the colour of its thoughts.

The more powerful and original a mind, 

the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

Music is a moral law. 

It gives soul to the universe, 

wings to the mind, 

flight to the imagination, 

and charm and gaiety to life 

and to everything.

If somebody asked me to design a religion

I would make it all about snow.

No good or evil and no suffering.

Just perfect crystals spinning

In ecstasy, ecstasy, ecstasy, ecstasy.

Science is simply common sense at its best, 

that is, 

rigidly accurate in observation, 

and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... 

only much, much better.

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible. 

Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. 

Thought is great and swift and free.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... 

observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. 

Observation collects facts; 

reflection combines them; 

experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

Science is not only a disciple of reason 

but, also, one of romance and passion.

The saddest aspect of life right now is 

that science gathers knowledge faster 

than society gathers wisdom.

We should look to the mind, 

and not to the outward appearance.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves 

in order to be like other people.

I have never wished to cater to the crowd; 

for what I know
they do not approve, 

and what they approve
I do not know.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, 

and strong is its current; 

no sooner is a thing brought to sight 

than it is swept by 

and another takes its place, 

and this too will be swept away.

Is the system going to flatten you out 

and deny you your humanity, 

or are you going to be able to make use of the system 

to the attainment of human purposes?

The roots of education are bitter, 

but the fruit is sweet.

Time, 

which changes people, 

does not alter the image 

we have retained of them.

The endeavour to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

I hope it is true 

that a man can die 

and yet not only live in others 

but give them life, 

and not only life, 

but that great consciousness of life.

Those who have the strength and the love 

to sit with a dying patient 

in the silence that goes beyond words 

will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, 

but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.

Life is a long preparation 

for something that never happens.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.