To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.

What I wanted was to be allowed to do the thing in the world that I did best, which I believed then and believe now, is the greatest privilege there is. When I did that, success found me.

The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.

There are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it.

No man can afford to express, through words and acts, that which is not in harmony with his own beliefs, and if he does so, he may pay by the loss of his ability to influence others.

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.

Conceit spoils the finest genius… and the great charm of all power is modesty.

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.

Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones to genius.

It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.

When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?

Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.

Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in the newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."

I propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth.