What a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of the other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.

One scientific epoch ended and another began with James Clerk Maxwell.

Academic chairs are many, but wise and noble teachers are few; lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what on has recognized to be true. It is evident that any restriction on academic freedom acts in such a way as to hamper the dissemination of knowledge among the people and thereby impedes national judgment and action.

My comprehension of God comes from a deeply felt conviction of a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world.