The enormous mental resilience, without which no Chess player can exist, was so much taken up by Chess that he could never free his mind of this game

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

The most valuable thing a teacher can impart to children is not knowledge and understanding per se but a longing for knowledge and understanding, and an appreciation for intellectual values, whether they be artistic, scientific, or moral. It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.

One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled under foot before one's time.

The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an exorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says "yes" to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says "Maybe," and in the great majority of cases simply "No." If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter "Maybe," and if it does not agree it means "No." Probably every theory will some day experience its "No" - most theories, soon after conception.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair.