Quotes to inspire and reflect

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts

Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

You can't blame gravity for falling in love.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.

Our schools are not teaching students to think. It is astonishing how many young people have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work

I start where the last man left off.

Great ideas originate in the muscles.

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.

There will, one day, spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.

I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.

There is no substitute for hard work.

What you are will show in what you do.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.

Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!

Well the future for me is already a thing of the past.