Only hidden and undetected oratory is really insidious. What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.

The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.

... The person who, at any stage of a conversation, disagrees, should at least hope to reach agreement in the end. He should be as much prepared to have his own mind changed as seek to change the mind of another ... No one who looks upon disagreement as an occasion for teaching another should forget that it is also an occasion for being taught.

If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess.

A lecture has been well described as the process whereby the notes of the teacher become the notes of the student without passing through the mind of either.

Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.