The intellect of man is forced to choose
Perfection of life or his art
If it’s the latter he must refuse
A heavenly mansion raging in the dark.
— André Beteille
A great many things can be done with your life if you decide to die poor.
— Prof. Dinesh K. Sharma, IIT Bombay
The more “successful” your education, the more likely you are to feel alone, because the process of segregation has been more complete. Just a few of you are academics like myself. 11+, O level, A Level, College Entrance, Degree class, Ph.D… at every stage you proved how much cleverer you are than all those other fellows, until in the end you stand quite alone and afraid.
— Edmund Leach, A Runaway World?, BBC, 1968, p. 73
The mind of a man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beam of things should reflect according to their true incidence: nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture.
— Francis Bacon
My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world.
— J. B. S. Haldane
The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.
— Sigmund Freud
The wise man reads both books and life itself… and …
All women’s dresses are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.
— Lin Yutang
When I carefully consider the curious habits of dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal.When I consider the curious habits of man
I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.
— An old Chinese poem