I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.

The ideal of an “all-round” education is out of date; it has been destroyed by the progress of knowledge.

Change is scientific, ‘progress’ is ethical. Change is indubitable whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

I think the essence of wisdom is emancipation, as far as possible, from the tyranny of the here and now.

The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interest of the desire to know.

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.