There is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.

I believe that we don't need to worry about what happens after this life, as long as we do our duty here-to love and to serve.

What I seek to accomplish is simply to serve with my feeble capacity truth and justice, at the risk of pleasing no one.

It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one's balance.

Why do people speak of great men in terms of nationality? Great Germans, great Englishmen? Goethe always protested against being called a German poet. Great men are simply men and are not to be considered from the point of view of nationality, nor should the environment in which they were brought up be taken into account.

A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.

We must remember that we do not observe nature as it actually exists, but nature exposed to our methods of perception. The theories determine what we can or cannot observe...Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.