A philosopher of imposing stature doesn't think in a vacuum. Even his most abstract ideas are, to some extent, conditioned by what is or is not known in the time when he lives.

Problems are only opportunities in disquise.

It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

Through and through the world is infested with quantity: To talk sense is to talk quantities. It is no use saying the nation is large. . . . How large? It is no use saying the radium is scarce. . . . How scarce? You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.

The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.

The absolute pacifist is a bad citizen; times come when force must be used to uphold right, justice and ideals.

It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.