There are two great classes of men: the people and the scholars, the men of science. For the former, nothing exists but that which directly leads to action. It is for the latter to see beyond. They are the free artists who create the future and its history, the conscious architects of the world.

Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also.

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.

We do not act because we know, but we know because we are called upon to act; the practical reason is the root of all reason.

A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends, therefore, on what sort of man one is; for a philosophical system is not a dead piece of furniture that we can reject or accept as we wish; it is rather a thing animated by the soul of the person who holds it.

He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.