As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible but more mysterious.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

A witty saying proves nothing.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.

The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.

There is no authority who decides what is a good idea.

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

The real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.

If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.

A thought is an idea in transit.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.

The secret of life is not enjoyment but education through experience.