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

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

God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion

A thought is an idea in transit.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

A witty saying proves nothing.

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.

What is now proved was once only imagined.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a length.

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.

I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.

The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.

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.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

The fullness of knowledge only comes through the awareness of ignorance.

Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand.

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.