The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.

What men really want is not knowledge but certainty.

My doctor said to me afterwards, 'When you were ill you behaved like a true philosopher. Every time you came to yourself you made a joke.' I never had a compliment that pleased me more.

Even if it is indifferent to human desires, as it seems to be; if human life is a passing episode, hardly noticeable in the vastness of cosmic processes; if there is no superhuman purpose, and no hope of ultimate salvation, it is better to know and acknowledge this truth than to endeavor, in futile self-assertion, to order the universe to be what we find comfortable.

Every increase in knowledge requires an increase in wisdom

I feel life is so small unless it has windows into other worlds.

The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.