Society and the World

There is an eloquent silence: it serves sometimes to approve, sometimes to condemn.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

Every stink that fights the ventilator thinks it is Don Quixote.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.

Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop.

To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory.

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

Blind alleys and garden paths leading nowhere are the principal hazards in research.

Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied.

In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone.

and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern.

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour’s reading would not dissipate.

I don’t think we should read for instruction but to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.

To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at last, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

The noblest question in the world is What Good may I do in it ?

The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel. Anybody can behave well when things are going smoothly.

People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.