“The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.”

In all the more advanced communities the great majority of things are worse done by the intervention of government than the individuals most interested in the matter would do them, or cause them to be done, if left to themselves.

Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.

A man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing “what nobody does,” or of not doing “what everybody does,” is the subject of as much depreciatory remark as if he or she had committed some grave moral delinquency.

There is an imaginary circle drawn around every human being, over which no government should be able to step.

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.

There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation.

There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.

He who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has need of no other faculty than that of ape-like imitation.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar; particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England

The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.

The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

The object of universities is not to make skillful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated human beings.

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.

All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

Berlin, formed for the advancement of science.

The Internet is probably the most important technological advancement of my lifetime.

The objective of spiritual advancement is not so much ‘works’ but the quality of life free from ego-consciousness.

Any article’s good. Long as it’s publicity, I think that’s all that matters. I think it’s advancement for my career.

I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to.

It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual.

The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.

There has to be a period of consolidation in the IT industry. Similarly in pharma, I think India is going to be a world power. We have the lowest cost, good technology, Indian companies are gaining size.