"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

"Adversity introduces a man to himself."

"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception."

"Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation."

"Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."

"It is harder to crack prejudice than an atom."

"Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

"Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible."

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."

"I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be."

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."

"You never fail until you stop trying."

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

"Life isn't worth living, unless it is lived for someone else."

"Dancers are the athletes of God."

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom." (first published 1937)]"

"The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives."

"We know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends."

"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university."