Learn as though you would never be able to master it; hold it as though you would be in fear of losing it.

Industrialize or perish.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

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

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

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

Dare to think for yourself.

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

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

In order to stave off covetouness, greed, and spite, citizens world over must be educated.

A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

Suddenly degrees aren't worth anything. Isn't that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn't have a job it's because you didn't want one. And I didn't want one, frankly.

My alma mater was books, a good library.... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.