A man of talent will strive for money and reputation; but the spring that moves genius to the production of its works is not as easy to name

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.

Mostly the loss teaches us only about the value of things.

It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.