Nu fac ce îmi doresc, ci îmi doresc ceea ce fac.

Tratamentul nevrasteniei prin odihnă, hrană și disciplină — medicina interioară a secolului al XIX-lea.

„We too rarely reflect that the blood thins with the decrease of the tissues and enriches as they increase.”

Esențialul este invizibil pentru ochi.

„Nu ești mulțumit niciodată acolo unde ești.”

Rațiunea ca formă de demnitate — și de eliberare de frică.

„“Common sense believes that what we see is physical, outside the mind, and continuing to exist if we shut our eyes or turn them in another direction. I believe that common sense is right in regarding what we see as physical and (in one of several possible senses) outside the mind, but is probably wrong in supposing that it continues to exist when we are no longer looking at it. It seems to me that the whole discussion of matter has been obscured by two errors which support each other. The first of these is the error that what we see, or perceive through any of our other senses, is subjective: the second is the belief that what is physical must be persistent. Whatever physics may regard as the ultimate constituents of matter, it always supposes these constituents to be indestructible. Since the immediate data of sense are not indestructible but in a state of perpetual flux, it is argued that these data themselves cannot be among the ultimate constituents of matter. I believe this to be a sheer mistake. The persistent particles of mathematical physics I regard as logical constructions, symbolic fictions enabling us to express compendiously very complicated assemblages of facts; and, on the other hand, I believe that the actual data in sensation, the immediate objects of sight or touch or hearing, are extra-mental, purely physical, and among the ultimate constituents of matter.”

Lumea ca cea mai bună combinație posibilă de adevăruri prime.

„Există dar o infinitate de Lumi Posibile, din care Dumnezeu nu avea să aleagă decât pe cea mai bună”

Scepticism radical aplicat religiei naturale și obiceiurilor minții.

„Oare ceea ce e pios este iubit de zei pentru că e pios, sau este pios pentru că e iubit de zei?”

Chimia ca limbă comună a lumii — totul este reacție.

„Rezultatele științifice spun foarte puține lucruri, atât timp cât nu puteți stabili cum ați ajuns la aceste rezultate.”