“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”

At odd and unpredictable times, we cling in fright to the past .

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

Intelligence is an accident of evolution, and not necessarily an advantage.

It is well-known that the friend of a conqueror is but the last victim.

Old people think young people haven’t learned about love. Young people think old people have forgotten about love.

Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies.

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.

To make discoveries, you have to be curious about why the universe is the way it is.

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.

People think of education as something that they can finish.

The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.

You don’t need to predict the future. Just choose a future – a good future, a useful future – and make the kind of prediction that will alter human emotions and reactions in such a way that the future you predicted will be brought about.

The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it’s bad for you.

There seems to be a feeling that anything that is natural is good. Strychnine is natural.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny.’

The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.

One of the most difficult things is not to change society – but to change yourself.

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It’s not as flip, irrelevant, and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.

The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person.

In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.

It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.