There is no greater hindrance to the progress of thought than an attitude of irritated party-spirit.

The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of 'independent existence.' There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe.

The merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God's earth.

Seek simplicity, then distrust.

There are no whole truths: all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays to the devil.

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.

Aristotle discovered all the half-truths which were necessary to the creation of science.