Philosophical

To generalize is to be an Idiot. To particularize is alone Distinction of Merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess.

Though you win a Nobel Prize in physics and literature, in a sense it is more important that you keep physics and literature alive, to be passed on to the generations that follow you.

Is education for the pursuit of knowledge or for the pursuit of significance? How you answer makes a difference.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls — work, family, health, friends, and spirit. Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered.

Our conscience must catch up to our reason, otherwise we are lost.

The world is in the hands of us all. And yet some have a greater influence on its fate than others. The more influence a person has, the greater the demands placed on their sense of responsibility.

We human beings are grand because we have the power to understand. We ask questions about nature and most remarkably, we can construct mathematical models which explain how it works.

Your B.A. does not belong to you alone, just as the earth does not belong to its present tenants alone. Your education was lent to you by women of the past, and you will give some back to living women, and to your daughters seven generations from now.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive.

It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.