It is impossible to meditate on time and the mystery of nature without an overwhelming emotion at the limitations of human intelligence.

To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific thought.

It is natural to think that an abstract science cannot be of much importance in affairs of human life, because it has omitted from its consideration everything of real interest.

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.

The fixed person for the fixed duties who in older societies was such a godsend, in future will be a public danger.

Seek simplicity, then distrust.

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