If one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justified merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgments of the individuals; they are there, that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence.

If I had it [life] to do all over again, I'd have been a plumber.

What you can't imagine, you can't discover.

Do you really believe that the moon isn’t there when nobody looks?

You can move through life seeing nothing as a miracle, or seeing everything as a miracle.

Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe.

A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.