The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.
There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.
Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.
We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.
There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.
An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.