Anyone can squash a bug but all professors of this world couldn't build one.

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power. You can think about only what you know, so you ought to learn something; on the other hand, you can know only what you have thought about.

The reason domestic pets are so lovable and so helpful to us is because they enjoy, quietly and placidly, the present moment.

When a new truth enters the world, the first stage of reaction to it is ridicule, the second stage is violent opposition, and in the third stage, that truth comes to be regarded as self-evident.

We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.

The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.

For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy.