Echoes

The world will hardly admit of an excuse for a man leaving a coast unexplored he has once discovered.

All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer sight to almost everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once. But can you really forbid a man from harboring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ... Don't stop to marvel.

I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all.

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

I had ambition not only to go farther than anyone had done before, but as far as it was possible for man to go.

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.

All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.

Man is the only animal that knows nothing and can learn nothing without being taught.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

I whose ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.

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

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

In prosecuting these discoveries, the dangers we are exposed to are obvious, but I rejoice that we are chosen to confront them.

Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for man to go.

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.

Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds… to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.

The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves—without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster. We cannot begin with an entirely clean slate, since we arrive at this problem with predispositions of hereditary and environmental origin; but, after understanding such built-in biases, is it not possible to pry insights from nature?