“Sometimes the child in one behaves a certain way and the rest of oneself follows behind, slowly shaking its head.”

I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.

In our description of nature the purpose is not to disclose the real essence of the phenomena but only to track down, so far as it is possible, relations between the manifold aspects of our experience.

If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth.

What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others.

The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

It is a great pity that human beings cannot find all of their satisfaction in scientific contemplativeness.

There are two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are clearly absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth.

If an idea does not appear bizarre, there is no hope for it.

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.

Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.

There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.

One must always do what one really cannot.

There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

I’m not sure whether it is me changing my mind, or whether I lie a lot.

You learn in life that the only person you can really correct and change is yourself.

But times do change and move continually.

I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one.

On her daughter: And she’s going through all these changes. You know, it’s just crazy times.

Human beings all change. Not what they are but who they are. We have the power to change what we do with our life and turn it into our destiny.

When a nominee doesn’t get 60 votes, you shouldn’t change the rules, you should change the nominee.

You can complain about what you can’t change or you can focus on what you can change.