We gain our ends only with the laws of nature; we control her only by understanding her laws.

To me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.

The child is not a prisoner of its inheritance; it holds its inheritance as a new creation which its future actions will unfold.

Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.

Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.

The discoveries of science, the works of art are explorations - more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.

The paradox of knowledge is not confined to the small, atomic scale; on the contrary, it is as cogent on the scale of man, and even of the stars.