Echoes

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.

Man knows much more than he understands.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.

In every systematic inquiry where there are first principles, or causes, or elements, knowledge and science result from acquiring knowledge of these.

I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.

If thou desire to profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faithfulness; nor even desire the repute of learning.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

These sudden inspirations never happen except after some days of voluntary effort which has appeared absolutely fruitless. The role of this unconscious work in mathematical invention appears to me incontestable. Rest gives back to the mind its force and freshness.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

Example is the best lesson there is.

I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.

The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

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

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.

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

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

I know that I know nothing.