There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.
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.
Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate.
If you're not learning while you're earning, you're cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.
You can never be overdressed or overeducated.
A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you?re pierced.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.
Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.
Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.
Investigate, educate and organize the country must progress, productive works and industries are the main avenues at present next to education for the advancement of the country
I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Investigate, educate and organize.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.