There are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen.

And I believe that the Binomial Theorem and a Bach Fugue are, in the long run, more important than all the battles of history.

Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it not be better if more people were slackers?

There's only one thing more important... and that is, after you've done what you set out to do, to feel that it's been worth doing.

This storm you talk of . . .t will be such a one, my son, as the world has not seen before. There will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. It will rage till every flower of culture is trampled, and all human things are leveled in a vast chaos.

Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value - the ultimate value of what one does.

If I had a child who wanted to be a teacher, I would bid him Godspeed as if he were going to war. For indeed the war against prejudice, greed, and ignorance is eternal, and those who dedicate themselves to it give their lives no less because they may live to see some fraction of the battle won.