You think you have troubles with mathematics . . . I assure you mine are still bigger.

A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others.

If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.

Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.

When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.