After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die. One might invent such a fable, and yet he still would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature.

Feathers shall raise men even as they do birds towards heaven :- That is by letters written with their quills.

No technical knowledge can outweigh knowledge of the humanities.

For the purpose of knowledge we must know how to make use of the inward current which draws us towards a thing, and also of the current which after a time draws us away from it.

Be robbers and ravagers as long as you cannot be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge! The time will soon be past when you could be content to live concealed in the woods like timid deer!

There can be no greater gift than that of giving one's time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.