I have seen men incapable of the sciences, but never any incapable of virtue.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

You have no control over the hand that life deals you, but how you play that hand is entirely up to you.

If you wish to obtain a great name or to found an establishment, be completely mad; but be sure that your madness corresponds with the turn and temper of your age.

Among the illusions which have invested our civilization is an absolute belief that the solutions to our problems must be a more determined application of rationally organized expertise... The reality is that our problems are largely the product of that application.