"The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity."
"All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain."
"We can actually accelerate the process through meditation, through the ability to find stillness through loving actions, through compassion and sharing, through understanding the nature of the creative process in the universe and having a sense of connection to it. So, that's conscious evolution."
"Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families."
"Time takes all and gives all."
"In the life of our organism, we are continually dealing with a development of force followed by a state of equilibrium. Of course, the human being has no conscious knowledge of what is really going on within him, but what takes place is so infinitely wise that the cleverness of the human ego is nothing by comparison."
"Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate."
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
"Language is conceived in sin and science is its redemption."
"Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully."
"I grew up in a Jewish family, and we have raised our children in a Jewish tradition. Religion gives a framework for moral enquiry in young minds and points us to questions beyond the material."
"Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens."
"A man content to go to heaven alone will never go to heaven."
"For the person for whom small things do not exist, the great is not great."
"A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed."
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion."
"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."
"Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification."
"To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well."
"Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy."
"All science requires mathematics. The knowledge of mathematical things is almost innate in us. This is the easiest of sciences, a fact which is obvious in that no one's brain rejects it; for laymen and people who are utterly illiterate know how to count and reckon."
"We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives."
"The wisest mind has something yet to learn."
"The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but rather, 'Can they suffer?'"
"It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition."