In formal logic, a contradiction is the signal of defeat, but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory.

• Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim, wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame obtained with labour, for mankind employed, and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.
• Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.
• Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.
• It is the business of the future to be dangerous and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.
• The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.
• True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
• Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
• An enormous part of our mature experience cannot not be expressed in words.
• Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.
• It is the business of the future to be dangerous and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.