It is superfluous to be humble on one’s own behalf; so many people are willing to do it for one.

Physics has never been a comfortable subject for human psychology. The desire to regard everything outside the human race’s purview as insignificant, and everything within that purview as firmly under the control of tribal myth and custom, is as strong today as it was in the time of Galileo.

It is curious that while one’s education is the part of one’s life over the conditions of which one has least individual control, the results of it are held to brand one irrevocably.

The human race’s favorite method for being in control of facts is to ignore them.

Young people wonder how the adult world can be so boring. The secret is that it is not boring to adults because they have learnt to enjoy simple things like covert malice at one another’s expense.

It is easier to study the ‘behavior’ of rats than people, because rats are smaller and have fewer outside commitments. So modern psychology is mostly about rats.

The sane person prides himself on his ability to be unaffected by important facts, and interested in unimportant ones. He refers to this as having a sense of perspective, or keeping things in proportion.

I cannot write long books; I leave that for those who have nothing to say.

Society expresses its sympathy for the geniuses of the past to distract attention from the fact that it has no intention of being sympathetic to the geniuses of the present.

Physics has never been a comfortable subject for human psychology. The desire to regard everything outside the human race's purview as insignificant, and everything within that purview as firmly under the control of tribal myth and custom, is as strong today as it was in the time of Galileo.