The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect.

The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches are made.

People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws.

What you have been obliged to discover by yourself leaves a path in your mind which you can use again when the need arises.

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

Men still have to be governed by deception.

There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.