A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.