There are times 

when the air that floats between mortals 

becomes, 

in its stillness and silence, 

as cruel as the edge of a scythe.

Truth is the daughter of time, 

and I feel no shame in being her midwife.

The trick is in what one emphasises. 

We either make ourselves miserable, 

or we make ourselves happy. 

The amount of work is the same.

Then there is the further question of 

what is the relationship of thinking to reality. 

As careful attention shows, 

thought itself is in an actual process of movement.

The most precious things in speech are pauses.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. 

Just like everyone else.

One's friends are that part of the human race 

with which one can be human.

I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy.

Give me the liberty 

to know, 

to utter, 

and to argue freely 

according to conscience, 

above all liberties.

The aura given out by a person or object 

is as much a part of them 

as their flesh.

 

It is generally believed 

that our science is empirical 

and that we draw our concepts 

and our mathematical constructs 

from the empirical data. 

If this were the whole truth, 

we should, when entering into a new field, 

introduce only such quantities 

as can directly be observed, 

and formulate natural laws 

only by means of these quantities.

The still point follows the last thing 

and precedes the next thing. 

It is the aperture of perception 

when past and future both hold the baton of our awareness. 

It reverberates with memory and foreknowledge, 

echoing into eternity.

And while I stood there 

I saw more than I can tell 

and I understood more than I saw; 

for I was seeing 

in a sacred manner 

the shapes of all things in the spirit, 

and the shape of all shapes 

as they must live together 

like one being.

 

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, 

but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

I therefore claim to show, 

not how men think in myths, 

but how myths operate in men's minds 

without their being aware of the fact.

I have striven 

not to laugh at human actions, 

not to weep at them, 

nor to hate them, 

but to understand them.

The desire of knowledge, 

like the thirst of riches, 

increases ever with the acquisition of it.

If the dream is a translation of waking life, 

waking life is also a translation of the dream.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Properly speaking, 

history is nothing 

but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.

No habit or quality is more easily acquired than hypocrisy, 

nor any thing sooner learned 

than to deny the sentiments of our hearts 

and the principle we act from: 

but the seeds of every passion are innate to us, 

and nobody comes into the world without them.

To be what we are, 

and to become what we are capable of becoming, 

is the only end of life.

Science is magic that works.

Be not entangled in this world of days and nights; 

Thou hast another time and space as well.

Truth in science 

can be defined as 

the working hypothesis 

best suited to open the way 

to the next better one.

What makes photography a strange invention 

is that its primary raw materials 

are light and time.

We do not know, in most cases, 

how far social failure and success are due to heredity, 

and how far to environment. 

But environment is the easier of the two to improve.

A great artist is always before his time or behind it.

Be just before you are generous.

Man's mind is so formed 

that it is far more susceptible 

to falsehood 

than to truth.

One should be able to control and manipulate experiences with an informed and intelligent mind.

Inspiration exists, 

but it has to find us working.

 

The universe is an intelligence test.

Anyone who has begun to think, 

places some portion of the world in jeopardy.

 

To exist is to change, 

to change is to mature, 

to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Art should never try to be popular. 

The public should try to make itself artistic.

The most radical revolutionary 

will become a conservative 

the day after the revolution.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

In poetic language, 

in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, 

this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor 

and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, 

and dissent to be mocked.

Every sentence I utter 

must be understood 

not as an affirmation, 

but as a question.

You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, 

so that all the small things go in the right direction.

The difference between people and ideas is ... only superficial.

 

Everyone has been made for some particular work, 

and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

 

Every man is the son of his own works.

There is no method but to be very intelligent.

Art to me 

is an anecdote of the spirit, 

and the only means 

of making concrete 

the purpose 

of its varied quickness 

and stillness.