Peirce, Charles Sanders

"The mind of man is not a thing to be studied apart, but as an integral factor in the natural world."

"Belief is not something that forces itself upon us. Belief is something we can control."

"The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit."

"There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth."

"Do not block yourself off from experiences, for in blocking yourself off you are blocking the growth of your own existence."

"The great principle of logic, the law of thought, the guide of life, is this: Do not block the way of inquiry."

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, we feel a responsibility for the conduct of others."

"It is better to supply a weaker argument to the possible than a strong argument against the actually given."

"The evolution of human thought will not be completed in the twentieth century."

"A man cannot consistently hold that every fact in the universe is regulated by rational law and yet that there is no rational law governing his own thought."

"The great events of the world take place in the brain."

"A person is but a symbol. Just as a word is a symbol of an object, a person represents something beyond himself."

"Reality consists in the eventual behavior of things."

"The highest type of man, to my mind, is the scholarly man."

"Do not, therefore, construct syllogisms in the negative."

"The universe is a vast representamen, a great symbol of God's purpose."

"A symbol is something by knowing which we know something more."

"To say that a fact is real is to say that the fact is what it is regardless of what any finite mind believes."

"Nothing is ever completely defined."

"The greatest business man I ever knew wanted to do business, not to get money but to improve the world."

"Man is a sign."

"The extraordinary success of modern science is due to the fact that science is run according to scientific principles."

"The best thinking has been done in the world the thinking beside a fire."

"There is no element of man's consciousness which has not something corresponding to it in the world."

"A person is not absolutely an individual. His thought is what he is thinking at that moment."

"Ideas are not inherited; they are acquired by thought."

"The beautiful is, for the mind, what food is for the body."

"The strength of all nations lies in their virtue."

"In the long run, the man who builds a character builds a fortune."

"Logic is the science of human thought."