In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory.

In England if something goes wrong--say, if one finds a skunk in the garden--he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.

That knowledge which adds greatness to character is knowledge so handled as to transform every phase of immediate experience.

Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well.

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts. It is a way of illuminating the facts.

Seek simplicity but distrust it.

Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas.