“This is perhaps as good a place as any to point out that what distinguishes many reformers from those who cannot accept their proposals is not their greater philanthropy, but their greater impatience. The question is not whether we wish to see everybody as well off as possible. Among men of good will such an aim can be taken for granted. The real question concerns the proper means of achieving it. And in trying to answer this we must never lose sight of a few elementary truisms. We cannot distribute more wealth than is created. We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces.”
“In a very real sense, people who have read good literaturehave lived more than people who cannot or will not read.It is not true that we have only one life to lead; if we can read,we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”
“The deeper we get into reality, the more numerous will be the questions we cannot answer.”
“Among these surprising possibilities, doubt suggests that perhaps there is no table at all. Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.”
“We cannot achieve more in life than what we believe in our heart of hearts we deserve to have.”
“Village is an idea; universe is an idea! If you cannot create an idea bigger than your village you live in, you remain inside your village; if we cannot create an idea greater than this universe, we remain inside this universe!”