“Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.”
“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.”
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
“Belief gets in the way of learning.”
“No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers.”
“Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.”
“Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way.”
“To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer.”
“When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects, this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.”
“Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. Another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible result. Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself that occupation in which hard work and long hours make him or her happy. Contrariwise, if you are looking for shorter hours and longer vacations and early retirement, you are in the wrong job. Perhaps you need to take up bank robbing. Or geeking in a sideshow. Or even politics.”