It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for

 — the whole thing — 

rather than just one or two stars.

The only freedom I care about

 is the freedom to do right; 

the freedom to do wrong 

I am ready to part with 

on the cheapest terms 

to anyone who will take it of me.

One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others.

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, 

no matter which side he's on.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, 

the more avid he becomes 

for great and sublime aims to pursue. 

He will no longer be content with family, country, 

and the remunerative aspect of his work. 

He will want wider organisations to create, 

new paths to blaze, 

causes to uphold, 

truths to discover, 

an ideal to cherish and defend.

Language is a part of our organism 

and no less complicated than it.

A lost but happy dream 

may shed its light 

upon our waking hours, 

and the whole day 

may be infected 

with the gloom 

of a dreary or sorrowful one; 

yet of neither may we be able to recover a trace.

Fashion is the science of appearance, 

and it inspires one with the desire to seem 

rather than to be.

I am no bird; 

and no net ensnares me; 

I am a free human being 

with an independent will.

A high heart ought to bear calamities 

and not flee them, 

since in bearing them 

appears the grandeur of the mind 

and in fleeing them 

the cowardice of the heart.

All good Literature rests primarily on insight.

To find a form that accommodates the mess, 

that is the task of the artist now.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... 

They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Nature is a temple 

in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. 

Man approaches it through forests of symbols, 

which observe him with familiar glances.

In all the areas within which the spiritual life of humanity is at work, 

the historical epoch wherein fate has placed us 

is an epoch of stupendous happenings.

A multitude of causes 

unknown to former times 

are now acting with a combined force 

to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, 

and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion 

to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.

The hallway of every man's life 

is paced with pictures; 

pictures gay and pictures gloomy, 

all useful, 

for if we be wise, 

we can learn from them 

a richer and braver way to live.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility 

cannot keep me from making mistakes. 

Only when I fall 

do I get up again.

The poet is a madman lost in adventure.

I am never afraid of what I know.

Painting (like poetry) chooses 

from universals 

what is most apposite. 

It brings together, 

in a single imaginary being, 

circumstances and characteristics 

which occur in nature

 in many different persons.

The big question is 

whether you are going to be able to say 

a hearty yes 

to your adventure.

What happens when good people 

are put into an evil place? 

Do they triumph 

or does the situation dominate 

their past history and morality?

Who are you going to believe, 

me or your own eyes?

I determined never to stop 

until I had come to the end 

and achieved my purpose.

The enslaving of the other is also the enslaving of the self.

The basic fault lines today are 

not between people with different beliefs 

but between people who hold these beliefs 

with an element of uncertainty 

and people who hold these beliefs 

with a pretence of certitude.

Every man, 

when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, 

and to feel his own importance, 

will consider himself as fully equal 

to any other person whatever.

The eye by long use comes to see 

even in the darkest cavern: 

and there is no subject so obscure 

but we may discern some glimpse of truth 

by long poring on it.

It seems to me that 

at this time 

we need education in the obvious 

After all, the best part of a holiday 

is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, 

as to see all the other fellows busy working.

Life on earth is such a good story 

you cannot afford to miss the beginning... 

Beneath our superficial differences 

we are all of us 

walking communities of bacteria. 

The world shimmers, 

a pointillist landscape 

made of tiny living beings.

Exhilaration is that feeling you get 

just after a great idea hits you, 

and just before you realise what's wrong with it.

Today the world changes so quickly 

that in growing up 

we take leave 

not just of youth 

but of the world we were young in.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

The pain passes, 

but the beauty remains.

I didn't think; 

I experimented.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; 

it stops to think. 

Music is immediate, 

it goes on to become.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. 

There is always more mystery.

Perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps 

under the illusion that I am exploring, 

doomed to try and learn 

what I should simply recognise, 

learning a mere fraction 

of what I have forgotten.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

When I do good 

I feel good, 

when I do bad 

I feel bad, 

and that's my religion.

I love fools' experiments. 

I am always making them.

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant 

may see farther than a giant himself.

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, 

and making what is best out of them.

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, 

never completely forget about it.

Any feeling that I was enriching my mind 

from those surrounding me 

was unfortunately rare with me.

If we go on explaining 

we shall cease to understand one another.

No one feels another's grief, 

no one understands another's joy. 

People imagine they can reach one another. 

In reality they only pass each other by.

How sad it is 

that these great gentlemen should believe what anyone tells them 

and do not choose to judge for themselves! 

But it is always so.