"Philosophy is the science which considers truth"

"A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value."

"Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true."

"You can always trust information given you by people who are crazy; they have an access to truth not available through regular channels."

"OUTCOME, n. A particular type of disappointment . . . . judged by the outcome, the result. This is immortal nonsense; the wisdom of an act is to be judged by the light that the doer had when he performed it."

"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."

"For all his learning or sophistication, man still instinctively reaches towards that force beyond. Only arrogance can deny its existence, and the denial falters in the face of evidence on every hand."

"Our technology has already outstripped our ability to control it."

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not starting."

"People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and defy the clamor of the multitude are not fit to be ministers in times of difficulty."

"When secrecy is known to exist, one can never be absolutely sure that he knows the complete truth"

"Nothing is the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; . . . Genius will not; . . . Education will not; . . . Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

"It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know - and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything."

"There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down error instead of establishing the truth."

"Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty."

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard."

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words -- wait and hope."

"Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men."

"Since everything in nature answers to a moral power, if any phenomenon remains brute and dark, it is that the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet active."

"There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere."

"All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."

"The World little knows how many thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator and have been crushed in silence and secrecy of his own criticism."

"From error to error one discovers the entire truth."

"Energy and persistence alter all things."

"A vow is fixed and unalterable determination to do a thing, when such a determination is related to something noble which can only uplift the man who makes the resolve."

"The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa."

"Most folks would like to 'leave their mark' on the world; that is, to have some lasting effect on mankind. The important people have towns and freeways named after them, and a generation later no one can remember why. You are forced in history class to learn the facts about the world's heroes that bear little resemblance to their life. The only 'mark' you will leave on the world is to the extent to which you change the world's thinking. You will effect all of mankind throughout eternity to the degree you effectively influence its thinking by what you believe, and therefore teach."

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

"An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie."

"A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others."

"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

"I looked into the vast dome of blue emptiness that stretched out above me in all directions and the illusion was still there, the size and speed, and what information they were sending to mother earth."

"You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies."

"As a rule, I always look for what others ignore."

"I've looked at life from both sides now/
From win and lose and still somehow/
It's life's illusions I recall/
I really don't know life at all."

"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality."

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

"Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour."

"Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch and believe in and that seems real for you today, is going to be -- like the reality of yesterday -- an illusion tomorrow."

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."

"Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do."

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

"Either I will find a way, or I will make one."

"If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment."

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor."

"Life is not an easy matter. . . . You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness."

"If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat."

"I once read a book about anti-gravity. I just couldn't put it down."

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner:

"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time."

"The one I feed the most."

"If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him, but no one would have remembered him either."

"The visitors seem willing to conform to whatever mythology or beliefs they find; they become what we want them to be and tell us what we want to hear. Modern mythology having shifted from the magical to the scientific it's only logical that the visitors would pose as scientifically advanced beings from space."

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

"It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. People must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts."