If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.

The greater part of human misery is caused by indolence.

So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.

Do not say hypothesis, and even less theory: say way of thinking.

Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.

An hour-glass is a reminder not only of time's quick flight, but also of the dust to which we must at last return

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.