Learn to see, and then you’ll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
We discover in others what others hide from us, and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
—Whitney Young (1921–71) American Civil Rights Leader
I am a part of all that I have met.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
By mutual confidence and mutual aid – great deeds are done, and great discoveries made
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
When you make the finding yourself – even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light – you’ll never forget it.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
Everything changes, nothing remains without change.
—Buddhist Teaching
The self is only that which it is in the process of becoming.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893–1986) Hungarian-American Biochemist
Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand why this illness was bound to come upon you and perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.
—Richard Feynman (1918–88) American Physicist
The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
—Ralph Washington Sockman (1889–1970) American United Methodist Pastor
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
I invent nothing, I rediscover.
—Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French Sculptor
The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don’t have to be anything else.
—Unknown
People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction.
—Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) French Social Anthropologist, Philosopher
Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
In contemplation, if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
For the rest, whatever we have got has been by infinite labor, and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is that instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax, thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.
—Sophia Loren (b.1934) Italian Actor
Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.
—Unknown
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes, in seeing the universe with the eyes of another, of hundreds of others, in seeing the hundreds of universes that each of them sees.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
It is the modest, not the presumptuous inquirer, who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths.—He follows God in his works and in his word.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
Man’s “progress” is but a gradual discovery that his questions have no meaning
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
If we make a couple of discoveries here and there we need not believe things will go on like this for ever. Just as we hit water when we dig in the earth, so we discover the incomprehensible sooner or later.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Why seek to scale Mount Everest,
Queen of the Air,
Why strive to crown that cruel crest
And deathward dare?
Said Mallory of dauntless quest
‘Because it’s there.’
—Robert W. Service (1874–1958) Scottish Poet, Author
Man cannot learn anything except by going from the known to the unknown.
—Claude Bernard (1813–78) French Physiologist
What has become clear to you since we last met?
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found—in himself.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.
—Isaac Newton (1643–1727) English Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer, Theologian
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
—James Bryant Conant (1893–1978) American Chemist, Educator
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
—Diane Ackerman (b.1948) American Poet, Essayist, Naturalist
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
We have what we seek. It is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist