When success turns a man's head he faces failure

The result of teaching small parts of a large number of subjects is the passive reception of disconnected ideas, not illumed with any spark of vitality.

To come very near to a true theory, and to grasp its precise application, are two different things, as the history of science teaches us. Everything of importance has been said before by someone who did not discover it.

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.

Education which is not modern share the fate of all organic things which are kept too long.

Philosophy is the self-correction by consciousness of its own initial excess of subjectivity.

I will not go so far as to say that to construct a history of thought without profound study of the mathematical ideas of successive epochs is like omitting Hamlet from the play which is named after him. That would be claiming too much. But it is certainly analogous to cutting out the part of Ophelia. This simile is singularly exact. For Ophelia is quite essential to the play, she is very charming . . . and a little mad.