There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.

Above all things expand the frontiers of science: without this the rest counts for nothing.

Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.

To make a vow is a greater sin than to break one.

Whenever he composes a critical review, I have been told, he gets an enormous erection.