“You never fail until you stop trying.”

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. Without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.”

“Conviction is a good motive, but a bad judge.”

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.”

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

“Tình cảnh của những đứa con trái đất chúng ta mới kỳ lạ làm sao! Mỗi chúng ta đến đây như một chuyến viếng thăm ngắn ngủi. Ta không biết để làm gì, nhưng đôi khi ta tin rằng ta cảm nhận được điều đó. Song, nhìn từ cuộc sống thường nhật mà không đi sâu hơn, ta biết rằng: ta đến đây vì người khác - trước hết vì những người mà hạnh phúc của riêng ta phụ thuộc hoàn toàn vào nụ cười và sự yên ấm của họ, kế đến là vì bao người không quen mà số phận của họ nối với ta bằng sợi dây của lòng cảm thông.”

“Love is a better master than duty.”

“Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.” 

“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. ”

“Nonsense, seems to sum up everything.”

“Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.”

“La vie c’est comme la bicyclette : quand on arrête de pédaler on tombe.”

“There are two important things for full success in life: 1. Don´t tell everything you know.”

“The tendencies we have mentioned are something new for America. They arose when, under the influence of the two World Wars and the consequent concentration of all forces on a military goal, a predominantly military mentality developed, which with the almost sudden victory became even more accentuated. The characteristic feature of this mentality is that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so tellingly terms “naked power” far above all other factors which affect the relations between peoples. The Germans, misled by Bismarck’s successes in particular, underwent just such a transformation of their mentality—in consequence of which they were entirely ruined in less than a hundred years. I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that, independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to others as well. It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts—in short, the psychological factors—are considered as unimportant and secondary. Herein lies a certain resemblance to Marxism, at least insofar as its theoretical side alone is kept in view. The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes “human materiel.” The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises “naked power” as a goal in itself—one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb.”

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