The habit of looking to the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts.

Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken.

Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.

Literature is inexhaustible, with every book a homage to infinity

If the West can claim superiority in anything, it is . . . in science and scientific technique.

Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery.

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.