The office of the scholar is to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances. He plies the slow, unhonored, and unpaid task of observation. He is the world’s eye.
The memory of a day like today reminds me to hold the ones I love that much tighter, that much longer… Take that much more time to be present and to feel the blessing of another day…
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious – except he purposely shut the eyes of his mind and keep them shut by force.
No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
No matter how carefully you plan your goals they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly: feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable.
I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.
One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby-so helpless and so ridiculous.
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.
Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.
You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
