Wisest is she who knows she does not know.

The stupidest thing she knew was for people to act like they knew all about the things they knew absolutely nothing about.

If an overgrown child draws something on a piece of paper, you can't ask the paper what the drawing is supposed to represent.

Dear Hilde, if the human brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it. Love, Dad.

Socrates, whose mother was a midwife, used to say that his art was like the art of the midwife. She does not herself give birth to the child, but she is there to help during its delivery. Similarly, Socrates saw his task as helping people to 'give birth' to correct insight, since real understanding must come from within. . . . Everybody can grasp philosophical truths if they just use their innate reason.

The question of whether a thing is right or wrong, good or bad, must always be considered in relation to a persons needs.

Life is short for those who are truly able to understand that one day the entire world will come to a complete end. Not everyone is capable of that. Not everyone has the ability to comprehend what going away for all eternity really implies. There are too many distractions, hour by hour, minute by minute, to hinder such an understanding.