Nothing contributes so much to tranquilise the mind as a steady purpose

 — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

Where all is but dream, 

reasoning and arguments are of no use, 

truth and knowledge nothing.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, 

the sensible man hardly anything.

We ought, 

in every instance, 

to submit our reasoning 

to the test of experiment, 

and never to search for truth 

but by the natural road 

of experiment and observation.

No fine work can be done 

without concentration 

and self-sacrifice 

and toil 

and doubt.

Scientists have to have a metaphor. 

All scientists start with imagination.

Works of art make rules; 

rules do not make works of art.

We live on a placid island of ignorance 

in the midst of black seas of infinity.

We are here to laugh at the odds 

and live our lives so well 

that Death will tremble to take us.

All men who have turned out worth anything 

have had the chief hand 

in their own education.

The scientist only imposes two things, 

namely truth and sincerity, 

imposes them upon himself 

and upon other scientists.

In science one tries to tell people, 

in such a way as to be understood by everyone, 

something that no one ever knew before. 

But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, 

our minds need ideas in order to conceive.

In a drama of the highest order 

there is little food for censure or hatred; 

it teaches rather self-knowledge and self-respect.

Knowledge once gained casts a light beyond its own immediate boundaries.

It is better to fail in originality 

than to succeed in imitation.

I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, 

be it country or town. 

A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.

And muse on Nature
with a poet's eye.

We don't stop playing 

because we grow old; 

we grow old 

because we stop playing.

Infatuated, 

half through conceit, 

half through love of my art, 

I achieve the impossible 

working as no one else ever works.

The spoken word 

was the first technology 

by which man was able 

to let go of his environment 

in order to grasp it 

in a new way.

Who naught suspects is easily deceived.

We keep, in science, 

getting a more and more sophisticated view 

of our essential ignorance.

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times 

is to be always a child. 

If no use is made of the labours of past ages, 

the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

Writing is an act of faith, 

not a trick of grammar.

If you haven't found something strange during the day, 

it hasn't been much of a day.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; 

one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

'L'Homme pense; donc je suis,' dit l'Univers.

Science is imagination in the service of the verifiable truth, 

and that service is indeed communal. 

It cannot be rigidly planned. 

Rather, it requires freedom and courage 

and the plural contributions of many different kinds of people 

who must maintain their individuality 

while giving to the group.

Each man must look to himself 

to teach him the meaning of life. 

It is not something discovered: 

it is something moulded.

Contemporary science is based on the philosophy of materialism, 

which claims that all reality is material or physical.

One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

We need to broaden our sympathies, 

both in space and time, 

and perceive ourselves as part of a long heritage, 

and stewards for an immense future.

If you are lonely when you're alone, 

you are in bad company.

Nature is an infinite sphere 

of which the centre is everywhere 

and the circumference nowhere.

My work is a game, 

a very serious game.

a darkness shining in brightness 

which brightness could not comprehend

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Painting is but another word for feeling.

There is no truth 

without responsibility 

following in its wake.

There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. 

In every generation 

the least cultivated taste 

has the largest appetite.

A solitary, 

unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, 

has mental experiences 

which are at once more intense 

and less articulate

 than those of a gregarious man.

The fact to which we have got to cling, 

as to a lifebelt, 

is that it is possible to be a normal decent person 

and yet be fully alive.

Social order 

at the expense of liberty 

is hardly a bargain.

No man was ever yet 

a great poet, 

without being 

at the same time 

a profound philosopher.

I cannot afford to waste my time making money.

It is easier to go down a hill than up, 

but the view is from the top.

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. 

We are never tired, 

so long as we can see far enough.

Our ideas must be as broad as Nature 

if they are to interpret Nature.