The more the schemata are differentiated, the smaller the gap between the new and the familiar becomes, so that novelty, instead of constituting an annoyance avoided by the subject, becomes a problem and invites searching.

The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.

Equilibrium is the profoundest tendency of all human activity.

Chance... in the accommodation peculiar to sensorimotor intelligence, plays the same role as in scientific discovery. It is only useful to the genius and its revelations remain meaningless to the unskilled.

Logic and mathematics are nothing but specialised linguistic structures.

Reflective abstraction, however, is based not on individual actions but on coordinated actions.

How can we, with our adult minds, know what will be interesting? If you follow the child...you can find out something new.