The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to seek the truth.

I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.

When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”

The atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure.

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.