“The universe displays no proof of an all-directing mind.”

Monotheism occupies so large a space in the view of modern minds, that it is scarcely possible to form a just estimate of the preceding phases of the theological philosophy.

All good intellects have repeated, since Bacon’s time, that there can be no real knowledge but which is based on observed facts.

Religion is an illusion of childhood, outgrown under proper education.

If we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, why should we allow it in morals or politics?

Mathematical Analysis is… the true rational basis of the whole system of our positive knowledge.

Nothing is destroyed until it is replaced.

The dead govern the living.

Woman is the most moral element in all humanity.

The word right should be excluded from political language, as the word cause from the language of philosophy.

Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?

Humanity is always made up of more dead than living.

Positivism is a theory of knowledge according to which the only kind of sound knowledge available to human kind is that if science grounded in observation.

Every science consists in the coordination of facts; if the different observations were entirely isolated, there would be no science.

Ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos.

Know yourself to improve yourself.

Everything is relative; and only that is absolute.

Single-minded devotion engenders deep thought, which expresses itself in action. The Lord’s Light descends on the devotee, His power awakens in him and, as a result, profound inner inquiry blossoms forth.

The great experimental principle, then, is doubt, that philosophic doubt which leaves to the mind its freedom and initiative, and from which the virtues most valuable to investigators in physiology and medicine are derived.

The way one sees is also dependent upon one’s emotional state of mind. This is why a motif can be looked at in so many ways, and this is what makes art so interesting.

The mental never influences the physical. It is always the physical that modifies the mental, and when we think that the mind is diseased, it is always an illusion.

The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

The better educated we are and the more acquired information we have, the better prepared shall we find our minds for making great and fruitful discoveries.

The minds that rise and become really great are never self-satisfied, but still continue to strive.

My advice to any young person at the beginning of their career is to try to look for the mere outlines of big things with their fresh, untrained and unprejudiced mind.