A true university can never rest upon the will of one man. A true university always rests upon the wills of many divergent-minded old men, who refuse to be disturbed, but who growl in their kennels.

People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins they wonder whether they are catching cold.

All progress is experimental.

The reason for the slow progress of the world seems to lie in a single fact. Every man is born under the yoke, and grows up beneath the oppressions of his age.

Learning is not easy, but hard; culture is severe. The steps to Parnassus are steep and terribly arduous.

Attack another's rights and you destroy your own.

Nothing is more injurious to the character and to the intellect than the suppression of a generous emotion.

Politics is organized hatred, that is unity.

Too much agreement kills the chat.

Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.

Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself.

Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.

When you come to a fork in the road, be still, and see with your mind's eye. There you find the clarity you seek.

I saw an angel in the block of marble and I just chiseled 'til I set him free.

I miss dating only for that final moment you kiss goodnight, watch her get out of your car and run into the police station.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

Do you know how much faster I can fix an airplane when I want to fix it than when I don't want to fix it?

The failure of the past philosophers is largely the failure to see the self-evident.

If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough.

It's OK to have wealth. But keep it in your hands, not in your heart.