We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

We see and hear 

and otherwise experience 

very largely as we do 

because the language habits of our community 

predispose certain choices of interpretation.

Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. 

Security is an insipid thing.

Truth emerges more readily from error 

than from confusion.

The great art of life is sensation, 

to feel that we exist, 

even in pain.

I have always observed 

that to succeed in the world 

one should seem a fool, 

but be wise.

Where sense is wanting, 

everything is wanting.

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. 

There is always something to make you wonder 

in the shape of a tree, 

the trembling of a leaf.

In Socrates' thought 

the two marks of individual self-consciousness appear; 

it is practical and it is social.

Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, 

and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.

Without courage, 

wisdom bears no fruit.

I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.

Our only security is our ability to change.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

What I dream of is an art of balance, 

of purity and serenity 

devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter

 — a soothing, calming influence on the mind, 

rather like a good armchair 

which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

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.