[In many circumstances,] the most important thing about a proposition is not that it be true, but that it be interesting.

Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent, the nightingale for its song; and the sun for its radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves and should turn them into odes of self congratulation on the excellence of the human mind.

[In many circumstances,] the most important thing about a proposition is not that it be true, but that it be interesting.

Value is coextensive with reality.

The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.

Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame; obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.

The aims of scientific thought are to see the general in the particular and the eternal in the transitory.