“There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.”

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.

Wonder is the seed of knowledge.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.

Books must follow sciences and not sciences books.

Money is a great servant but a bad master.

There is no exquisite beauty, without some strangeness in the proportion.

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.

Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

Nature cannot be commanded except by being obeyed.