Echoes

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

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

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

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.

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?

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

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.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.

It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.

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

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

The purpose of life...is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

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

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

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

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.

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