The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

The factor in human life provocative of a noble discontent is the gradual emergence of a sense of criticism, founded upon appreciation of beauty, and of intellectual distinction, and of duty.

But harmony is limitation. Thus rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality. Unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing.

Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning.

An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it.

No Roman ever died in contemplation over a geometrical diagram.